So What Is Agile?

Agile methodology is an approach to project management. Its power is in its ability to help development teams respond to the unpredictability of building software due to the lag between build-out and release through incremental, iterative work cadences, known as sprints. At the end of each sprint the teams must present a shippable increment of work. This process provides many opportunities to assess the direction of a project throughout the development lifecycle.

Sprints encourage frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals.

Why Agile?

Think of traditional software development as building an apartment complex. Input can only be given effectively from the client at the beginning, and changes during the building are often time consuming and expensive. Additionally, before the "apartments," or in reality features, can be sold to the consumer the whole building needs to be completed, tested, and released. In the ever-changing world of software, your product or site could be obsolete by the time it is ready and bug free.

Agile Methodology on the other hand offers iterative and incremental releases that ensure each "apartment" is available to your consumers as it is developed. While in the actual metaphor of an apartment complex you might find it difficult to sell the first "apartments" while you are developing the rest, in the world of software this process keeps your product or website relevant and constantly offering features. These features and changes are driven by consumer demand, not only in anticipation of it, and the agile process can accommodate this while keeping the costs to the client low.

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