Question

3.1

What are the shared characteristics of different agile methods of software development?

2. For what types of system are agile approaches to development particularly likely to be successful?

3. List the 5 principles of agile methods.

4. List 4 questions that should be asked when deciding whether or not to adopt an agile method of software development.

5. Name three important agile techniques that were introduced in extreme programming?

6. What is test-first development?

7. What are the possible problems of test-first development?

8. Why has the Scrum agile method been widely adopted in preference to methods such as XP?

9. What is a Scrum sprint?

10. What are the barriers to introducing agile methods into large companies?

Answer 1

1.What are the shared characteristics of different agile methods of software development?

• People and interactions over processes and tools
• Embracing changes over sticking to a plan
• Business/Clients and developers collaboration over contract negotiation
• Customer satisfaction
• Continuous delivery of working software

2. For what types of system are agile approaches to development particularly likely to be successful?

• Agile approaches are usually applied to projects that have a constraint in providing full details at the commencement of the project.
• For systems that execute various process in parallel such as requirement gathering, designing, implementation, etc.
• As the project progresses in various iterations, stakeholders should be available throughout the project for checking each iteration, giving feedback and proposing changes.
• In light of the above statements, agile approaches are particularly likely to be successful for either small or medium sized projects

3. List the 5 principles of agile methods.

1. Frequent delivery of working software and customer satisfaction.
2. Business people and developers must work together throughout the project.
3. Maintain simplicity.
4. Embrace change even in late development.
5. Regular reflection on how to be more efficient and effective.

4. List 4 questions that should be asked when deciding whether or not to adopt an agile method of software development.

1. Why are you choosing the agile method for the development of the software?
2. Are you sure it is the best method approach compared to the conventional method?
3. Do you and your team have the expertise to adopt agile method for developping the software?
4. How large would the system be and how much time will the process require?
5. Are your customers aware of how agile methodology works? Will there be any gaps due to incomprehensibility?
6. Are your customers ready to receive changes quickly and provide suitable feedback?
7. Is incremental strategy feasible?

5. Name three important agile techniques that were introduced in extreme programming?

1. Continuous integration from multiple iterations into single software project.
2. Frequent communication and feedback report.
3. Pair programming, in which two developers work together in order to provide the optimal outcome.

6. What is test-first development?

Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development process that runs in iterations of test cases which leads to improvement of the code. In simple words, you write the tests before you write the code. This technique feels odd, at first, but it is known to have been getting less errors and show-stopping bugs to production have nearly dropped down to zero. The goal of TDD is to produce working clean code that fulfills any requirements.

7. What are the possible problems of test-first development?

1. Test first development is very different from the conventional way and many find it difficult to adapt to novelty and anomaly of TDD.
2. It might be hard to apply to the existing source or legacy code.
3. Test case writing is time consuming.
4. It needs the entire team to work extensively on the tests and code in order to prevent system degradation.
5. Tests may be easy to write for unit testing but beyond this, it would take a lot of effort to get things right.

8. Why has the Scrum agile method been widely adopted in preference to methods such as XP?

• Scrum agile method has been widely adopted in preference to methods such as XP because Scrum is the simplest of methods and is one of the famous and most used method present in the market right now.
• XP relies on is a highly disciplined approach with definitive software practices specified. On the other hand, Scrum is highly flexible and adaptive.
• Implementation of Scrum is less costly than that of XP.
• Unlike XP, Scrum has more transparency and visibility than any other methodology.
• Scrum is also known to deliver creatively with highest possible value.

9. What is a Scrum sprint?

• Agile projects are broken down into smaller, consistent blocks of time intervals, which are referred to as scrum sprints. They are utilized in order to provide top value to the project.
• For each sprint, there is a sprint planning meeting which determines the goals for it.
• After the successful closure of a Sprint, a new Sprint starts immediately. Usually, sprints last for a month or less.
• The goal is to plan, review the plan, make changes (if required), build, deliver and review post delivery.

10. What are the barriers to introducing agile methods into large companies?

There are several barriers to introducing agile methods into large companies, It is often believed that agile methods can be incompatible with complex projects and the pre-determined quality procedures in large companies may fail to be established by agile methods.

Agile methods are very significant but large companies see them as incompatible with their approaches and more over, project managers are reluctant to follow a new approach leaving behind their conventional methods. In addition, employees require prior knowledge and adequate experience of agile methodology in order to utilize them. Initially agile methods can seem to be overwhelming and it takes quite some time to adapt to this methodology and since large companies do not have so much time to spare, it is seen as a barrier for them.