Basic Principles of Agile Software Development

Adaptive, interactive, responsive, and collaborative – these are the primary goals and features of agile software development, a school of thought in innovations thinking that has recently gained a popular following in the digital information industry.

At its core, agile development emphasises that technology is functional depending on how it addresses consumer demands. Because of this, agile software development underscores the process of working together with customers and/or end-users to continually improve a product.

Adaptive and Responsive Technologies

The agile software development principle of adaptability refers to the agile team’s capacity to adapt to the changing needs of a project. It advocates innovation as an iterative process that must involve and accommodate continuous improvement.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001) points out that a working software is the primary measure for success and that every software must be sustainable. This means it must be constantly enhanced through a continuous iterative process of designing, debugging, re-designing, -de-bugging and so on.

Under this principle, it is important for an agile development team to maintain a feedback loop and daily stand-up adaptation cycles to review and re-evaluate the progress of their designs. This involves a process of day-to-day monitoring of impediments and risks to a software’s progress. Unlike earlier strategies in product development where testing is done at the end of product completion, agile development promotes product testing at every stage of development.

To ensure adherence to standards, practitioners and advocates of agile development have developed instruments that determine whether developers practice proper agile development methodologies. Nokia test, Karlskrona and 42-point test are among that can be used to determine duration, risk, novelty, efforts and interactive features of a product.

Interactive Processes and Iterative Software Development

A central principle of agile software development is systematic, self-organising, and developer-customer interactions. Presumably, a customer-oriented mindset operationalised through strong and regular communication between a product’s developer and target are critical activities to ensure a product’s relevance and continuous improvement. This principle is process-oriented since it focuses on actions and stages in product development rather than seeing the product as an end in itself.

The Agile Software Development Manifesto also emphasises that face-to-face communication is the most practical, efficient, and effective form of communication to assure meaningful feedback and working relationships. However, due to unexpected circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and passive methods for collecting data proved to be indispensable and even necessary approaches. It is fortunate that many innovators invested in distance-independent technology such as videoconferencing, usage data collection with consent, and other tools.

Collaboration Above all Else

Agile software development, as the name implies ultimately values flexibility. This flexibility is, of course, achieved through constant interaction between developers and clients and continual improvement in different stages of product development.

In addition, agile software development emphasises flexibility as a result of collaboration among an agile team, among IT staff in a company, and among a range of software development stakeholders including the target public or market. Presumably, such continuous and healthy collaboration makes it possible to achieve transparent, sustainable and mutually-beneficial software improvements.

Conclusion

As a major movement in the IT industry in the last decade, agile software development practices are founded on principles of self-organising, cross-functional collaboration, and intensified customer engagement for continual product improvement.

Organisations that need to complement their IT technical resources or capabilities should ideally partner with a digital service provider, particularly one that supports and practices the principles of this new digital creation framework. It is, therefore, best to collaborate with companies familiar with software, web, and mobile app development like us at Frontline Mobile Pte. Ltd. Completing project after project through agile development, we’re among Singapore’s best in serving companies worldwide. For more information on partner options, contact us by sending your enquiries here: https://www.frontline.com.sg/contact/.