What is Agile Software Development?

Anyone who has been working in software development over the last 10 years or so will have at least heard of the term Agile. People often talk about doing Agile or being Agile but, beyond a cool-sounding buzzword, what is Agile all about? Well, to answer that question we need to look at the origins of Agile Software Development.

Back in the late 1990s, many senior software developers and industry leaders, fed up with the static and inflexible software development methodologies prevalent at the time, were already experimenting with more flexible and responsive techniques and approaches. Between 2000 and 2001, a small group of these visionaries met up to discuss these methods and techniques. The unifying force behind this effort was a desire to be able to quickly deliver working software to end users and get rapid feedback on the software’s impact and scope. In the forthcoming years, the methodologies developed under this philosophy came...