Top 10 tips for better agile [software engineering projects]
Caroline Bird · Information Professional · 2005
Agile is a conceptual framework for tackling software engineering projects. Many individuals - and many organisations - can't believe that agile works in the real world, or that it would prove tenable when exposed to their organisational culture. These same organisations are often failing to deliver and support high-quality software to their business users and customers; but rather than change what doesn't work they simply try and do more of it - more documentation, checkpoints, metrics, meetings, sign-offs, and so on. Agile methods are easy to understand; but attempting to put the simple principles into practice is where it gets hard. In this article, we unpick some of the common problems: (1) team dynamics are paramount, (2) maintain honesty and transparency, (3) focus on business value, (4) quality is king, (5) get the business involved, (6) get the user group involved, (7) release value early, (8) fixed scope trap, (9) don't do 'mini waterfalls', (10) evolve the architecture.