Agile Development: An Overview of Lightweight Development Methods and Practices

Development processes organise the activities and outputs of software development according to a philosophy and set of practices. The software quality, determinism of the schedule, repeatability of the practices, and so on have not always been either evident or in proportion to the effort invested in many traditional documented methods.

Agile development processes have recently captured the imagination and support of software developers and managers, offering an alternative discipline to either bureaucratic processes or chaotic processes. They are low in ceremony compared to more heavyweight approaches, but are uncompromising on quality and rigour. Agile methods seek to address development issues through techniques that are less removed from either the code or the team. In particular, Extreme Programming has established itself as a process that addresses the developer's technical day-to-day practices, the project management perspective and the business focus.

This seminar aims to highlight the problems in producing and scheduling of modern software development, give an overview of a number of agile development methods, and focus on many practices that are seen to be central to modern development.

On completion of the course delegates will be able to:

• Outline the motivation for agile development processes
• Highlight the features common to agile development processes
• Describe the main agile development processes, and common practices
• Address practical concerns, including selection and adoption of practices
• Appreciate when and how — and when not and how not — to apply various agile techniques