What is agile software development?

Agile development: definition and values

“Agile” means nimble. The term goes back to the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development” of 2001. It puts four values first: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.

Agility is not a single method but a framework. Scrum, Kanban and Extreme Programming put it into practice in different ways. What they share is working in short iterations, close coordination with the client, regular retrospectives and the willingness to adjust the plan when new insights emerge.

How an agile project works

The requirements are ready as a prioritized list, the backlog, usually written as user stories. In cycles of one to four weeks, called sprints in Scrum, the team picks the most important items, implements them and shows the result in a demo. The client gives feedback, priorities are adjusted, and the next cycle begins.

This produces usable software early, and wrong turns show up after weeks instead of months. A prerequisite is that someone on the client side makes business decisions and has time for coordination—in Scrum that is the Product Owner. If this person is missing, open questions delay every stage.

• Short cycles with a working interim result
• A prioritized requirements list (backlog) that is allowed to change
• Regular demos and retrospectives
• A fixed contact person with decision-making authority on the client side
• Automated tests and frequent delivery

Real-world example: a dealer portal in stages

A wholesaler wants to offer its customers an ordering portal but does not yet know exactly which functions will really be used. Instead of writing a complete requirements specification, the project starts with login, product search and reordering. After four weeks, three regular customers test the portal.

Their feedback shifts the priorities: more important than the planned ordering assistant is the display of individual prices. It is implemented first. The wholesaler invests in what proves itself and saves on functions that hardly anyone would have used. The result is a portal that fits what customers actually need.

Benefits, limits and imple­menta­tion

The benefits are quick first value, less misdirected development and higher acceptance. Limits: total scope and end date are not exactly fixed at the start, which makes budget planning and fixed-price contracts harder; agility costs the client time, and without discipline “agile” becomes an excuse for missing planning. Typical mistakes are demos without decision-makers, an ever-growing backlog and missing tests.

Nano Concepts works iteratively on development projects with regular interim versions and discusses with you which way of working and billing suits the project. For clearly defined projects, a fixed price for a defined scope can also make sense; what matters is that scope, change procedures and acceptance are clarified from the start.