Agile Development

Agile development emphasizes the reduction of all forms of waste.

In a 500 page requirements document, most of the requirements will be significantly redesigned as they are implemented.  For most applications more than half the requirements are either not implemented or are significantly redesigned in the process.  The original work done creating those specifications is waste.

The purpose of software development is to put software into the user's hands so that the user can:

  • work faster
  • work more accurately
  • do work they could not do before

This really boils down to:

  • make more profit
  • add more value

So the only measure of the software development process is "Working software, used in production, adding value to the business."

Work done that does not support this end is, in some way, waste. 

Waste appears in many shapes and forms.  It is often well concealed:

  • A cool feature, so much fun to implement, but the users do not use it - waste. 
  • A clever framework that does not quite help as much as it was expected to do - probably waste. 
  • A huge requirements document, argued over, eventually grudgingly signed off by the users, and only half of it ever implemented - huge waste. 
  • The major development, that even after completion, could not be implemented for six months because the users could not be released for training - waste (at least the six months delay before getting value from it was waste).
  • Any delay in implementation.  The money to build the software is already spent, but the benefits are not being realised.  Waste.

Agile practices attack all of the situations described above and many more.

Dynamisys developers and consultants, with more than twenty years of industry experience, will work within your team delivering formal training; team support - mentoring; or doing some of the work.  We help your team implement the practices they need to become more agile.  Your team learns to deliver the software their customers want, to deliver it quickly and to deliver it to high standards.  Call or email now to discuss how your project will benefit from early delivery.

Based near Swindon, Wiltshire we work with customers over the UK and abroad.

The Agile Development Process

Computing news report on agile development.

Computing news report on agile development in BT

Computing news report on agile development in Amnesty International

 

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