Software development methodology refers to a fixed method of solving information problems using a programming language. This study includes specific methods that encompass the stages of analysis, design, development, testing, documenting, implementation, and evaluation within the complex sphere of software engineering.
Various methodologies thus emerged in the late 1990s and stimulated public interest in software developers in particular. Different combinations were formulated based on old ideas, new ideas, and transmuted old ideas for each methodology. Before that, they all emphasised close collaboration between the programmer team and business experts; face-to-face communication (because it was more efficient than written documentation); frequent delivery of new deployable business value; tight, self-organizing teams; and ways to make the code and the team so that the inevitable mix-up of requirements did not lead to a crisis. Based on the mentioned details, Agile Software Development reveals better ways to develop software by doing it and helping others do it. Such principles or values are extracted as follows:
- Individuals and interactions concerning processes and agile tools
- Working software with extensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation:
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation:
The term “agile software development” was coined in the year 2001 following the formulation of the Agile Manifesto. This is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing and cross-functional teams. Agile development generally promotes a disciplined project management process that maintains the following:
- Frequent inspections and adjustments leadership
- philosophy that encourages teamwork.
- Self-organization and responsibility
- a collection of technical best practises that allows for the rapid delivery of high-quality software
- Aligns development with customer needs and business goals as a business approach.
As many studies and research are conducted for the betterment of the world of technology and information, agile development methods have technically grown in number. Henceforth, they mainly promote, through development iterations, teamwork, collaboration, and process adaptability throughout the project lifecycle.
The methods mentioned are highly efficient and organized, breaking down tasks into small steps with minimal planning and are not directly related to long-term planning. Iterations are short time frames, like “timeboxes,” which typically last one to four weeks. Each iteration involves a team going through a full software development cycle, including planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing when a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders. So it definitely helps minimise the overall risk and allows the project to adapt quickly to changes. Stakeholders produce documentation as needed. The goal is to have an available release after each iteration, as multiple products or new features are expected to be released after that.
In relation to the collaboration between cross-functional and self-organizing teams mentioned a while ago, team composition in an agile project is usually done as-is, without taking into account an existing corporate hierarchy or the corporate roles of team members. Team members normally take responsibility for tasks that deliver the functionality an iteration requires. They individually decide how to meet the requirements of an iteration.
Its methods emphasise face-to-face communication over written documents when the team is all in the same location. When a team works in different locations, they maintain daily contact via video conferencing, voice, email, etc.
Agile development teams usually work in one open office (called a “bullpen”), which makes such communication possible. Each team is composed of members who typically range from 5–9 people, which makes team communication and collaboration easily malleable. Thus, it is expected that greater development efforts can be made by multiple teams working towards a common goal or different parts of an effort. Therefore, coordination of priorities between teams may be required.
Agile tools are created to help development teams in their never-ending search for the right and essential tools for software development. The agile tools are as follows:
1. JIRA Studio as a Hosted Development Suite:
brings Atlassian’s products together to give you flexible project management, problem discovery, wiki collaboration, source code analysis and reviews, plus subversion to improve release planning, team communication, and customer feedback collection.
Useful for: developers, team leaders, and product managers.
Designed for: planning, lightning feedback, and customer feedback collection.
2. JIRA + GreenHopper for agile project management
: Combined with the Greenhopper plugin, JIRA forms the foundation of a powerful agile platform for developers to schedule releases, collect feedback, track issues, and manage project status.
Useful for: developers, team leaders, and product managers. designed
for flexible scheduling, collecting customer feedback, and monitoring team performance.
3. Confluence for flexible collaboration: This tool is designed to assist agile developers in planning requirements, collaborating on changes, and displaying metrics.
Useful for: developers (internal blogging with peers), technical writers (developing docs), and product managers (collaborating on requirements and Balsamiq mockups).
Designed for team performance statistics (JIRA Issues macro + Bamboo builds plugin), planning (PRDs and JIRA issues macro), and lightning-fast feedback (change documentation, RSS + Dashboards).
4. FishEye for code analysis
: With FishEye’s insight into a source code repository, agile developers can quickly find code, be notified of relevant code changes, and receive useful metrics on team performance.
Useful for: developers (quickly finding code), team leads (statistics about the team and each developer), and technical leads (RSS for an affiliate).
Designed for lightning-fast feedback and team performance stats.
5. Bamboo for continuous integration
: Agile developers use continuous integration to get the most out of their unit testing. Set up Bamboo to get instant feedback on the impact of each commit and to monitor build stats.
It’s useful for: developers (learn about their commits), team leads (get build stats quickly), and testers (run integration and performance tests early in the game). designed
for early and frequent testing (CI Whitepaper), lightning-fast feedback (two-way IM), and team performance metrics.
6. Clover for code coverage:
The ultimate Java code coverage tool for agile development, Clover accurately assesses the impact on your tests and notifies you of gaps in test coverage before it’s too late.
Useful for: developers and testers designed
for early and frequent testing and lightning-fast feedback.
7. Code Ratings Melting Pot: Integrates peer code review directly into your work habits.
Agile developers use Crucible to get timely feedback on their code and track statistics and audit trails.
Developers (distributed assessment), team leaders (let developers learn from one another), and technical leaders (get audit trail metrics on who did what and why) will find this useful.
Designed for: early and frequent testing (pre-commit assessments), lightning-fast feedback (assessment notifications), performance statistics (reports and audit trail).
8. Pyxis-creators of GreenHopper-
Taught by certified trainers and practitioners with industry expertise, the Pyxis training programme provides effective techniques through hands-on exercises and group discussions to increase your knowledge of agility and help your software development team build the right software.
Useful for: developers, team leaders, scrum masters, product managers, and product owners.
Designed for mastering agile software engineering practises and developing innovative project management techniques.
The given Agile tools are some of the few tools offered by Agile software development developers that are provided over the internet. Some tools vary accordingly depending on how they are used, which is why they are said to be well tested.
Learn more about agile development and discover how Agile Software Development using agile tools can help you create perfect and working software that will make an impact on the world wide web.
