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Questions tagged [agile]

Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development reads, in its entirety, as follows:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

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Further Reading

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Are deadlines Agile?

For clarity, a deadline is: A time limit or deadline is a narrow field of time, or particular point in time, by which an objective or task must be accomplished. From wikipedia My whole software development career I have been doing "Agile" which…
stevebot
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How to sell Agile development to (waterfall) clients

Our development shop would really like to do more agile projects but we have a problem getting clients on board. Many clients want a budget and a deadline. It's hard to sell a client on an agile project when our competitors do come up with…
Sander Marechal
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Deploying code without unit tests to give testers more time

So we work in a structure with three week sprints, and we want to give testers time to test. Currently our process is, write functionality > write unit tests > code review > deploy to testing environment. What I thought of is that when we have…
DubDub
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Where does learning new skills fit into Agile?

I am starting a financial software company and in the process I have been studying Agile principles and methods and the one aspect of development that I have not yet seen addressed is where to fit the continual need for developers to learn new…
Anton Bursch
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Is it possible to take a flexible agile approach to projects that require estimates of both time taken and time saved?

As someone who's worked effectively with Agile before, I am trying to convince my current employers of its benefits. However, management are insistent that we retain the ability to make upfront estimates in order to assess the business value of…
Bob Tway
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When Agile goes wrong

I'm writing an Agile course for some of the new guys we are on-boarding recently, and I want to add a cautionary tale so they understand that Agile is not meant for all projects. My problem is that, because of the nature of the projects I work in…
Chepech
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Does Agile force developers to spend more time actually working?

Looking at common Agile practices it seems to me that they (intentionally or unintentionally?) force developers to spend more time actually working as opposed to reading blogs/articles, chatting, coffee breaks and just plain procrastinating. In…
Fixpoint
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How to allow innovation in an Agile Methodology

It is one thing to say that agile methodologies are good in settings where requirements are poorly understood, or that significant novelty is involved. But should it be applied where outright innovation is required? If yes, how? If what you are…
Brent Arias
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What does it mean to be agile?

We have a project that everyone says we will be doing in a agile way but I doubt we have clearly understood what agile is. In previous projects we had planning meetings, then defined the product back log and allocated the work to developers in 2 to…
JD01
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Can Agile software development be used in projects defined by a contract?

I recently had a conversation with a fellow developer about Agile Software Development. While I understand the principle, it seems that continuously changing requirements creates the potential for the project to go on forever. But, at least where I…
Verax
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Should we document stand-up meetings?

Another team in my company start to document their stand-up meetings, but I believe it is a waste of time. As far as I know, stand-up meetings are for communication not for status reporting (please, correct me if I am wrong) So, Should we document…
Sameh Deabes
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Funding Agile Projects

The company I work within is tentatively moving towards an Agile project management strategy - having experienced the "joys" of waterfall one time to many. Key to this is a shift in emphasis towards delivering functionality as opposed to meeting…
sunwukung
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Our version of Agile isn't working. Tips?

I work on a small team of 4 developers. We are implementing a version of Agile that seems to continuously provide us with the same difficulties, week after week, and I'm looking for suggestions that can help us improve our process. The…
letsgetsilly
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Dealing with the customer / developer culture mismatch on an agile project

One of the tenets of agile is ... Customer collaboration over contract negotiation ... another one is ... Individuals and interactions over processes and tools But the way I see it, at least when it comes to interaction with the customer, there is a…
Eric Smith
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Agile methodology: quick and dirty or plan first?

Agile question: does agile believe in getting things up and running the “quick and dirty way” - or does agile prefer building solidly from the ground up? Or is this not a methodology question, and more a question that you evaluate case by case? I’m…
Jonathan
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