Agile Methodologies in Software Development: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Research Approach and Methodologies..........................................................................................2
Detailed description of significant trend identified.........................................................................2
Challenges that might faced by using Agile methodologies.........................................................11
Opportunities in this method.........................................................................................................11
Considerations...............................................................................................................................12
Impacts on business analysis.........................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14
Figure 1: Basic steps of developing software..................................................................................3
Figure 2: Phases of agile method.....................................................................................................4
Figure 3: Principles of Agile Methodology.....................................................................................5
Figure 4: Agile Methodology Functionality....................................................................................6
Figure 5: XP process........................................................................................................................7
Figure 6: Framework of SCRUM....................................................................................................8
Figure 7: Phases of SCRUM............................................................................................................9
Figure 8: Phases of Adaptive Software Development...................................................................10
Figure 9: Detail of ADS cycle.......................................................................................................11

Abstract
As the advancement in industrial field is increasing, they are directly affecting the ways to
handle particular business systems more in a positive way as technology is providing effective
ways to extend the business capabilities. Several different methodologies for the development of
the system are referred as a standard process which is followed by an enterprise for conducting
all the necessary steps which need to follow before producing any kind of project in the market.
Agile methodology is discussed in this report in order to explain the significant trend in a
business system analysis and it is the most acceptable methodology in the competitive market of
system development whereas there are more methodologies that are SSDM, ID but the most used
is the agile method. So in this report agile method will be discussed in detail.
Research Approach and Methodologies
The given report will be based on a thorough and detailed discussion for identifying various
trends that are present in contemporary business environments. With the help of different sources
and websites, this report includes basic and important information regarding agile methods and
their usability in the business systems and to create this report Organizational case studies,
Gartner Reports, different search articles of foresters, many scholars databases, different
competitive analysis and myriad of business journals of different consulting firms like BABOK
guide, Brain and Company guide and KPMG guide helped in providing a great guidance and
information.
A detailed description of the significant trend identified
Agile System development methodology helps in allowing the evolution of system requirements
and providing the solutions via collaboration. This method evolved in the 1990s in order to
substitute the traditional waterfall model. It is a method for development of software which
focuses on people requirements and is really flexible which is always ready for adaptation for
any expected changes; it also encourages rapid and iterative development of small releases of the
product. It also focuses on limiting the timeframe as well as in improving the quality and makes
it cost-efficient. This method is really responsive as it responds properly to the changes that
might take place expectedly or unexpectedly. It is a learning method as well; because it also
takes care of improvement while the development of the product and after the development also.

Agile methodology is responsive to the extreme changes which can be faced in IT environments
and in modern businesses as well. This method promotes a well-regimented process for
managing the project which helps in developing the adaptation limits as well as helps in
enhancing frequent inspection. This method also helps in developing philosophy for leadership
which helps in encouraging teamwork for the people who are engaged in a project, also promotes
liability and responsibility, self-organization, a proper set of the best practices which helps in
allowing a delivery of a great quality software and finally a approach in terms of business which
helps in aligning the development with the requirements of a customer and the objectives of the
company.
Figure 1: Basic steps of developing software (source: ("Top 12 Software Development Methodologies & its
Advantages / Disadvantages | TatvaSoft", 2019))
The different phases of the Agile Method:

Figure 2: Phases of the agile method (source: (2019))
There are various principles which are commonly decided by the originators of the agile method
and are published as “The Manifesto for Agile Software Development”. These principles are as
follows:
 Satisfaction of the customers by continuous increments.
 Try to implement the first increment in a couple of weeks and the complete software in a
couple of months.
 The coordination among the customers and the agile team members should be proper and
need to work daily until the project gets completed.
 Meetings are mandatory between agile workers and customers.
 There should be welcome requirements as well even at the last phases of the
development of the systems.
 All the team members should trust and maintain the integrity and respect of every
worker.

 After the delivery of every increment of the project, there should be a proper track which
needs to maintain that will help in measuring and marinating the velocity of the project.
 Emphasis on a good design for maintaining quality.
 Self-organization is important for releasing the best design and architecture.
 Flexibility and adjustment are important for maintaining proper tuning in different
situations.
 KIS is ‘keep it simple’ principle should be followed throughout the development of the
project.
 Consistency is required until the completion of the whole project.
Figure 3: Principles of Agile Methodology (source: (→, 2019))
Agile methodology as discussed above generally focuses on flexibility which makes this method
adaptable and iterative, so there is a diagram which shows how this method is iterative:

Figure 4: Agile Methodology Functionality (source: ("Agile Methodologies", 2019))
Agile methods request many people as they play a useful compromise among too much process
and no process so as to gain rational givebacks. They are not very document-oriented, generally,
emphasize on small documents for any provided task. These Agile methods are generally people
oriented rather than process oriented and it ensures that there is no process available which will
make up the skill development team therefore to support the development team for the work, the
process plays a supportive role.
Now, there are different types of agile methods that are present and widely used in the markets.
The different methods have different approaches for the development of the software and also
the management of the software. There are many numbers of methods and techniques which are
used that only focuses on the management of the project and the corporation practices which
include Scrum, ASD, Lean Development and there are different methods that focus only on
implementing software practices like XP which is Extreme Programming, FDD(Feature Driven
Development) and the Agile Modelling (AM). Here, a few methods are explained in detail:
XP (Extreme Programming):
XP method or Extreme Programming was developed by Kent Beck and is one of the agile
methodologies which are most acceptable in the market. This method helps a software project to
improve in different areas like:
 Simplicity
 Communication
 Courage
 Feedback

This agile methodology helps in introducing the basic 12 principles through which an XP
programmer is able to provide responses to the changing environment. This method usually
focuses on the priority of the customer that provides help in representing requirements for
business in every release of a system. This method includes many numbers of small releases of
the features of a system or different functionality releases by developers writing a test for the
features of a system before actually writing code (Parikh, (2019)). The involvement of a customer
from the beginning of a project by a client acceptance testing before the release of the code gives
the surety of strong purchase in a client. Also, another focus of this method is on collaborative
development and teamwork. By using this approach, there is a transfer of knowledge among
developers and clients take place that is much in line with the help of the RAD approach.
The figure which is given below provides the example of how the principles of agile are taken
into consideration for exploring, planning, implementing and releasing in the development of a
system.
Figure 5: XP process (source: (Systems, 2019))
Scrum:
This is one of the methods of agile methodologies which were enforced in the 1990s by Mike
Beedle and Ken Schwaber. This method is agile and an iterative method which is also based on
an incremental developing method that works by assuming that the changes and disarray are
always present in the life cycle of a project try to provide solutions for these problems. This
method is designed in order to add different elements in teams of the project development system
of software which include focus, courage, energy, transparency, and clarity among the team.

In this method, a particular work gets divided in the form of a cycle structure of work which is
termed as sprints. The iteration of work which generally has a duration of 2-4 weeks. Team find
a user story from the list of priorities that include the requirements of the customer in every
particular sprint, this is because the features which are developed initially will have the highest
value to the client and at the end of every sprint there is a product which is potentially shippable
will be delivered to the client (Elgebeely, et al,. (2017)). This agile method, Scrum concentrates on
an enterprise in order to build products which are successfully completed. Scrum can be enforced
either at the initial phase of a project or it can be implemented in the middle of the project
development. Scrum helps in building demonstrable product functionality usually within thirty
days and that too by not performing major changes in the project.
Figure 6: Framework of SCRUM (source: ("Is Scrum hurting your agility?", 2019))

Figure 7: Phases of SCRUM (source: ("Agile Methodologies", 2019))
Adaptive Software Development (ADS):
ADS also referred as Adaptive Software Development is a type of agile method used to develop
software which came from the development of the rapid application work performed by Jim
Highsmith and Sam Bayer(Abrahamsson, (2017)). This Adaptive Software Development method
helps in to embody the basic rule which continuously adapts the process for working at the hand
is the normal state of affairs.
This method has different phases that are Communicating and planning, analyzing, designing
and developing and testing and deploying.

Figure 8: Phases of Adaptive Software Development (source: ("Agile Methodologies", 2019))
These four different phases are discussed here:
 Communicating and Planning: This phase is used for proposing the documents and
specifying the requirements of the project that is composed of feasibility and risk
assessments also.
 Analyzing: This is the second phase and this start only when the customer agrees on the
first phase in which requirements and proposal have been discussed. This phase contains
the paper documentation in which the quality of software is discussed and approved, also
the analyst will collect all the required information thoroughly by the help of this phase.
The final product of this phase is a Software Requirement Specification which is also
referred to as SRS.
 Designing and developing: In this method, an adaptive software development process
model which is also known as ADS is used for prototype approaching in order for the
verification of the structure, requirements and the design of software.

 Testing and deploying: This is the last phase of the cycle in which one needs to develop
different test cases for every increment at the initial phase of this last phase. Every
module get tested in this phase and this testing is unit based which will be followed by
the test integration in the modules
Figure 9: Detail of ADS cycle (source: ("Adaptive Software Development - Amachu", 2019))
Challenges that might be faced by using Agile methodologies
There are various benefits of using the agile methods but there are different challenges as well
which are discussed here:
 Communication problems are one of the challenges in an agile environment and
especially for the distributed teams, it is because the teams are limited only within their
team workers.
 Another challenge is to access the communication tools among the distributed teams that
are separated by different time zones which make the agile method a bit difficult to
implement (Baham, et al,. (2017)).
 There are also product delivery issues which might face after the completion of the
product, for every team member there might be different views and perception which
may difficult to handle and decide on a single perception.
 Different personalities which are present in a single team can be a beneficial point but it
can be challenging as well in order to take a unit and combined decision.
Opportunities in this method

Opportunities and future scope in agile methodology have the scope of participating as a member
of an agile development team or a SCRUM master or a project manager. All these roles are the
large role which provides an individual a better future. These leaders help in organizing pieces of
the project and enhance the productivity in team members (Santos, et al,. (2015, April)). As the
business point of view, the adaptation of a product manager can be adapted by the project
manager as well. There is no requirement of a different project and product manager which will
ultimately provide more benefit for the person as he is performing two different roles by using
similar principals.
The role of a project manager in agile development provides the responsibility which is held by a
development manager. The organization will provide the opportunity to the person who is highly
skilled and have leadership qualities so that will provide a person more self-confidence and
opportunity for showing the skills.
Considerations
There are a few considerations that need to be taken care of while applying agile methods. One
of the considerations that are to first make a proper budget according to the project so that after
completion of the project or in the middle of it, there are no cost issues that a team might face.
Another is that a business manager who is responsible for the project or the business should take
care that after every progress of the project, there is proper communication among the customer
and the workers.
Another consideration is to check all the necessary resources before starting the project and there
should be proper communication facilities among the distributed teams on a particular project.
Impacts on business analysis
Agile methods, when adopted into business line, provide a huge profit in marketing field, human
resources field and many more. This method helps a business to transform in software
development, enterprising department functions, to develop many products with greater
flexibility. It provides business to create an innovative environment, helps to develop a high skill
set in a team and also provide multidisciplinary teams which help the business to burgeoning
more and at high speed. It also helps in maintaining communication among the clients as well as
among the employees. It makes the business environment more adaptive in which every
employee can adapt certain situation that may occur unexpectedly. Therefore, a high skilled
workers company and flexible employees will give a positive impact on the business in which
these agile techniques are followed.