Agile - Characteristics

Iterative/incremental and Ready to Evolve

Most of the agile development methods break a problem into smaller tasks. There is no direct long-term planning for any requirement. Normally, iterations are planned which are of vary short period of time, for example, 1 to 4 weeks. A cross-functional team is created for each iteration that works in all functions of software development like planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing. The result at the end of the iteration is a working product and it is demonstrated to the stakeholders at the end of an iteration.

After demo, review comments are taken and are planned to be incorporated in the working software as required.

Face-to-face Communication

Each agile team should have a customer representative such as a product owner in scrum methodology. This representative is authorized to act on behalf of the stakeholders and he can answer the queries of the developers in between iterations.

An information radiator (physical display) is normally located prominently in an office, where passers-by can see the progress of the agile team. This information radiator shows an up-to-date summary of the status of a project.

Feedback Loop

Daily stand-up is a common culture of any agile development; it is also known as daily scrum. It is a kind of a brief session where each team member reports to each other regarding the status of what they have done, what to do next, and any issues they are facing.