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Agile versus Traditional development

Traditional Development

The traditional Waterfall approach assumes:

  • All requirements are known before starting the development
  • Nothing will change during the development
  • Only start a phase of development after the previous phase is complete
  • Start testing the system after it has been developed
  • Only deliver the software once all the requirements have been completed

Consequently problems are discovered late, resulting in:

  • Significant rework
  • Significant impact on the schedule
  • Significant increase in costs
  • Reduced quality
  • Low confidence

Agile Development

The Agile approach starts from quite a different position:

  • Appreciate that not all requirements are known at the start
  • Accept that things will change during development
  • Find the problems as soon as possible

Mechanisms for Agile Development

  • Frequent delivery of a functioning ‘product’
  • Incremental introduction of functionality
  • Prioritise ‘product’ functionality to meet a Timebox
  • Start testing the ‘product’ as soon as possible

Consequently problems are discovered early and lessons learned, resulting in:

  • Reduced rework effort
  • Reduced impact on timescales
  • Increased confidence in the end product
  • Good quality
  • Continuous improvement

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