Agile software development
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The document surveys early adopters of agile software development methodologies, highlighting factors driving their adoption, perceived benefits, and challenges. Key advantages include enhanced productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction, with methods like XP and Scrum being notably popular. Data collected from various surveys reveals a significant interest and positive outcomes associated with agile practices among software development professionals.
Agile software development
- 1. AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT A SURVEY OF EARLY ADOPTERS
- 2. Abstract Agile development methods has emerged from case studies. A survey strategy enables to learn about the factors driving the adoption and use of agile practices, and their benefits and challenges as perceived by early adopters of this software development methodology. The ability to meet client needs and the delivery of quality software products on time are significant benefits of agile development.
- 3. The Agile Manifesto stresses the importance of a) people and interactions over processes and tools b) working software instead of detailed documentation c) active customer participation and involvement rather than time and effort expended on negotiating contracts d) willingness and ability to take on changes over steadfast commitment to a static plan
- 4. • Agile software development methods including eXtreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Adaptive Software Development and Feature-Driven Development are based on the principles of the Agile Manifesto and geared towards realizing its goals and objectives
- 5. The benefits attributed to agile development are • increased productivity • expanded test coverage • improved quality/fewer defects • reduced time and costs • Understandable • maintainable and extensible code • improved morale • better collaboration • and higher customer satisfaction
- 6. EARLIER SURVEY RESULTS • In 2003, Shine Technologies, an Australian information technology (IT) consulting firm, conducted a web-based survey to ascertain organizations’ interest in agile methods. • They received 131 responses from around the world, the majority of whom (84.7%) indicated that they were knowledgeable about agile development. • XP was the most popular agile method with 59% of respondents using it. • (80% or above) reported that agile processes had improved team productivity, the quality of the applications, and business satisfaction • half the respondents believed that costs were reduced with the introduction of agile methods.
- 7. • Digital Focus (IT consulting firm) completed a comparable online survey in 2005 eliciting responses from 136 individuals representing 128 organizations from 17 different countries. • 90% of the respondents of this survey had a basic understanding of agile development practices • 81% were either using or planning to use agile methods in their organizations
- 8. • Two other surveys conducted in 2005 provide information about the rate of adoption of agile development. • The first, an online poll conducted by MethodsAndTools.com, indicate about 40% of the 232 participants’ organizations had adopted agile methods and another 20% were evaluating them in pilot projects. • The second study, conducted by Schwaber and Fichera for Forrester Research, states that about 14% of North American and European companies were using agile approaches and another 19% were planning to adopt them in the immediate future.
- 9. DATA COLLECTION STRATEGY • Data for this study were collected through online survey of software development professionals who are most likely to be early adopters of agile development
- 10. Respondent Profile • 98 responses from software professionals who have an average of 15.5 (median = 15.0) years of experience with software development and 3.9 (median = 3.0) years of agile experience. • the respondents had a variety of job titles, including some unique titles such as Agile/XP Coach and Chief Agilist, software developer/architect/engineer/programmer (48%) • director/manager/leader (34%), and analysts/consultants (11%).
- 12. Type of Projects
- 13. Agile Use
- 14. Factors Influencing Agile Adoption
- 15. Factors Influencing Agile Adoption
- 16. Problems/Challenges in Adopting and Using Agile
- 17. Benefits Realized From Agile Use
- 18. Limitations of Agile Development
- 19. Thank You
Editor's Notes
- #12: test-first and XP are reported to be used the most extensively, ranking 5.40 and 5.04, respectively, on a 7-point scale (see Figure 1). Pair Programming is used slightly less extensively, with a ranking of 4.20, followed by Scrum and Agile Modeling with rankings of 3.50 and 3.41, respectively. AUP (the Agile Unified Process) came in last with a ranking of 1.94.
- #13: Our respondents specified that agile techniques are mostly used for Internet-based software development projects (70%) and are sparingly used for systems applications (operating systems, compilers, languages), realtime/control systems, and simulators (see Figure 2). In addition, about half the respondents employ agile approaches for front-end (data-entry, GUI-oriented) and back-end (data-processing, batch, non-GUI) systems and about a third utilize them in developing ERP and “standalone” systems, such as word-processing or spreadsheet applications.
- #14: A majority of the respondents (75%) indicated that they use agile development approaches in half or more of all their projects
- #15: It is intriguing that personal interest is, by far, the most important factor influencing the agile adoption decision, with a mean score of 6.32 on the 7-point survey scale
- #16: Agile approaches are intended to produce software systems faster while simultaneously (or, more precisely, ambidextrously) anticipating and catering to changes in their requirements. Therefore, it is understandable that project turn-around time, software complexity and the stability of requirements emerge as the most influential factors in organizational decisions to use agile approaches (see Figure 5). In addition, the relatively low importance given to the criticality of the project is probably an indication of the respondents’ confidence in the capabilities of agile methods to take on any type of project, including mission-critical ones
- #17: It is apparent that our respondents do not believe that any perceived limitations with agile approaches such as the lack of formal guidelines, inadequate rewards or increased risk of project failure, are inhibitors of their adoption and use (see Figure 6). Rather, they attribute problems with the acceptance of agile development to organizational resistance and managerial disinterest. Lack of training and peer support are also recognized as challenges compounding the view that organizational actions (or the lack thereof) are probably the biggest roadblocks to the adoption and diffusion of agile practices. Our respondents offer more insight by identifying a) ignorance of agile, b) lack of facilities for pair programming, c) individual resistance and d) the exclusive reliance on economic evaluation criteria as additional barriers to the acceptance of agile methods.
- #18: As an affirmation of its guiding principles, the ability to be flexible and to deliver quality software that meets customer needs faster are recognized as key benefits of using agile development (see Figure 7). The relatively lower rating for reduction in development costs and the production of reusable code is an indication that costs and reusability may not be primary motivations for embracing agile methods and techniques. Some of the other benefits generated by our respondents are a) increased productivity, b) greater team morale, job satisfaction, and fun, c) improved predictability of schedule/costs/quality, d) knowledge transfer and sharing and e) lower risk of project failure.
- #19: In general, our respondents appear to be more upbeat about agile; more convinced about its benefits with few, if any, misgivings about its shortcomings (see Figure 8). Relatively, the limited support for development involving distributed environments and large teams and a steep learning curve may be the only worrisome issues. Aside from our custom list – few of which are considered serious drawbacks – respondents named the following as limitations to agile development: a) inability to work in CMMI environments, b) incompatibility with development culture, and c) lack of predictive control.