Agile methodologies have a fixed timeframe for iterations or sprints where analysis, design, development and testing take place - the end result is an incremental product that can be delivered to the customer. The team constantly seeks feedback from the customer and works together to add features, revise the code, and integrate the feedback over time. Thanks to this way of working, agile projects are able to respond more flexibly to changes, maintain product features, and keep up with the latest developments in the industry.
Agile methodologies are particularly suitable when the scope of a project is to evolve and there is no clarity at the beginning about the end product or the customer's expectations. This is especially important when a product is subject to a cycle of rapid changes in requirements or standards to meet the demands of the environment.
Agile methodologies generally follow a set of guiding principles (the Agile Manifesto), but have certain specific characteristics that make them unique. Organizations and the teams choose the most appropriate flavor. The success of the methodology used in a project depends on a variety of factors, from the nature of the project to the culture of the organization and the people involved.
Some of the popular Agile methodologies include Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Lean, Kanban, Feature-Driven Development (FDD), Dynamic system development method (DSDM) and the Crystal. These methods are often used in at team level. Scaling Micro agile (SMART) enables scaling agile to any number of teams and for any product size.
Top related Tools and techniques of Agile Methodologies
Kanban is a pull-based software development methodology that aims to minimize work-in-progress (WIP), maximize continuous flow, and visualize the flow of work through the various phases of the product lifecycle from concept to production.
Scrum is one of the most popular agile methodologies that focuses on iterative and incremental development of products (e.g. software). Scrum delivers products in short timeboxed-iterations. Each iteration starts after a planning game and ends with a demo and retrospective.