Better Software Conference 2006: Agile Development and Its Impact on Productivity

Agile development projects are different. Sure, they still have high-level business requirements, but they usually lack system descriptions, technical design documents, and system architectures. The projects tend to be smaller than those employing more traditional methods, and much of the testing occurs concurrently with development. The teams tend to be very small and often in one room, more like a group of friends than a typical development team. How do these and other differences affect productivity and the resulting products? Based on his research and personal experiences, David Garmus discusses the differences between Agile and traditional methodologies and offers specific ways to measure these differences to help you decide: Is Agile development right for your next project?

• The quantitative and qualitative differences between Agile and more traditional projects
• Performance data on some recent Agile development projects
• When to choose Agile development practices for a project