The Agile Success Story
The Agile software development methodologies were the first attempts to improve the software development situation, with Lean coming onto the software scene much later.
Most of the Agile methodologies, like Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum, actually predate the Agile Manifesto (which we will discuss shortly). In fact, using the term “Agile” to refer to these methods of software development was coined at the famous Snowbird meeting that created the Agile Manifesto.
In the 1990s there was a growing dissatisfaction with the prevalent heavy software development methodologies and processes. Using these processes did not solve any of the endemic problems of software development: high project failure rate, low software quality, and generally unhappy customers.
This spawned a number of alternative methodologies, including XP, Scrum, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Crystal, and Feature Driven Development (FDD), that were collectively known as Lightweight methods. The term “Lightweight” was meant to distinguish them from the predominant heavyweight methods of the time. Their creators were not happy with the term “Lightweight” because it seemed to imply that these methods were less comprehensive or less important.
It became increasingly apparent that these Lightweight methods had a lot in common with each other. So, in February of 2001, a group of 17 of the leading independent thinkers about software development gathered at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah to ...