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CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS AGILE?
1
‘Agile’ is a collective term for methodologies (and
practices) that have emerged over the past two decades to
increase the relevance, quality, flexibility, and business
value of software solutions. These adaptive management
approaches are specifically intended to address the
problems that have historically plagued software
development and service delivery activities in the IT
industry, including budget overruns, missed deadlines, low-
quality outputs, and dissatisfied users.
Although there is a broad range of Agile methodologies in
the IT industry – from software development and project
delivery approaches to strategies for software maintenance
– all Agile methodologies share the same basic objectives:
• To replace upfront planning with incremental planning
that adapts to the most current information available
(‘Apply, Inspect, Adapt’).
• To minimize the impact of changing requirements by
providing a low overhead structure to accommodate
variations to the originally identified requirements
throughout the project.
• To build in quality upfront and then relentlessly
confirm the integrity of the solution throughout the
process.
1
For those who follow this author’s writing, some of the introductory material from
Everything You Want to Know about Agile: How to get Agile results in a less-than-Agile
organization, Jamie Lynn Cooke, IT Governance Publishing (2012) has been adapted for
use in this book, serving the same purpose as in the original.