A couple of weeks ago we received a visit from Erik Birkfeld, one of our guest speakers. He came to SSF to talk about Agile Software Development Methodology, our students were very excited to learn a bit more about this very cool methodology.

And for those who have no clue of what we are talking about, here is a little bit on Agile Software Development Methodology!

In 2001 a small group of software developers got together to discuss the traditional way to approach the making of software development projects, they thought that those ways were failing too often, and it was time for a change.  It was then that this group came up with the Agile Manifesto, that described 4 important values applicable and relevant until today. The 4 values written in the document said:

We value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

Agile Software Development Methodology, let’s called it Agile here to make it simpler, is focused on helping teams respond to unpredictability by keeping code  simple, testing often and delivering parts of the application as soon as they are ready. It breaks the dependency on requirement stability and comes up with a process that takes changes in account.

Since Agile works in cycles, it gives the opportunity to present the client with parts of the project, pre-approving it by steps, revisiting the project every cycle, creating the perfect piece and empowering the team to optimize the value of the final product throughout the development. Instead of committing to a product that might not be ideal, the ASDM ensures a competitive final product with the critical relevance that the market needs.

Agile has been extensively used for development of software products, however these techniques can be applied to non-software products, such as computers, food, clothing and music. Those principles are even found in management, being created the terms Agile Business Management and Business Agility.

If you want to find out more you can access the full Agility manifesto here: http://www.agilemanifesto.org/