Agile Processes

http://www.objectmentor.com/resources/articles/agileProcess.pdf

As we all know, the world around us is constantly changing. Organizations need to be able to keep up with this change in order to stay competitive and meet changing customer demands. I found an article that discussed in more detail the importance of agile processes and what it takes to make them work. The article states "It is the ability to respond to change that often determines the success or failure of a software project." There is an emphasis on the ability of a plan to be flexible and adapt to change throughout the process. This whole chapter (5) is about dealing with changing business processes and agile processes, if done properly, are a great way to work through these changes. It is impossible to predict what will happen with a software project far into the future. A detailed plan should be made for the first few weeks only, then the plan should remain rough and flexible for any variables that may come up in the next few months or in a year. I think this article provides great guidelines for successful agile processes. "The principles and values of agile software development were formed as a way to help teams break the cycle of process inflation, and to focus on simple techniques for reaching their goals." As long as the principles and values discussed are followed, an organization should be able to apply the agile process successfully and adapt to change properly.