Agile methods

Get your moneys worth

The purpose of agile methods is to focus on the most important aspect of software development, which is to maximize the return on the customer's investment. The customer participates in the whole process and can follow the development through frequent accessible releases.

What, when and how much does it cost?

In software development the following three questions are hard to answer : what does the software cost, when is it ready for production and what features is it going to have?

The essence of agile methods is that the three core constraints of a project - the available resources, the schedule and the desired features - are impossible to freeze in advance. One constraint has to be flexible, if the other two are fixed.

Using Agile methods these questions can be answered better than with the classic waterfall-model, where the schedule, features and price are fixed based on vague guesses. Often these projects end up in adapting the resources, schedule or features or all of them in the worst cases. Mostly the need for change is admitted too late, close to the final delivery according to the original schedule. Unfortunately changes at this point are considerably more expensive than changes at earlier points in the project.

Agile methods provide a realistic view on the advancement of a project. Short iterations that produce releases with accessible features, offer more insight and control than traditional process models.