Moving from traditional software development methods to agile methods

Abstract

In this literature review, using existing research and sources, benefits and challenges of agile software development methods were discussed. Agile methods were also compared to traditional software development methods. Agile was defined and its four points of value were listed. This provided a basis for discussing the benefits and challenges of agile compared to the traditional software development methods. Customer involvement was found to have a positive effect on customer satisfaction in agile. The development team that was using agile as their development method was able to deliver something of value for the customer faster. This was useful if the company had to race to market. However, a software project that was developed with waterfall was found to be more predictable, especially if the development team was experienced. This was in part due to the customer not being able to change the requirements of the product they had ordered, and in part of the progressive or onward-moving development process typical to waterfall. Also, planning is a big part of waterfall development and it affects the predictability and measurability of the project as well. One of the biggest challenges when moving to agile from a traditional development method was changing the fundamental mindset of the people working in the organization. Especially the management-style needed to change from command-and-control management to leadership-and-collaboration. One of the challenges was that customer involvement might become a burden if the customer is continuously changing the requirements. Moving to agile from a traditional development method is not easy and it could lead to adding more sprints to the software development process than was planned.