Updated July 5, 2023
Introduction to Agile Process Model
When the software is developed, the IT organization’s development process is associated with a methodology. Various models can be used to develop software. Noted ones include a waterfall model, Agile Process Model, RAD model, prototype model, extreme programming methodology, etc. The choice of model depends on many factors, such as time required for delivery, funding, how important the software will be, the team’s skill set, client involvement, etc.
Traditionally many organizations used to use the waterfall model in their development process. Still, there are more shortcomings to that model. A waterfall model is rigid and cannot accept changes easily; it also requires and has to focus on heavy documentation. To overcome such a shortcoming, we introduced the Agile process model, which focuses on delivering working software. Agile can accommodate changes easily and has shown tremendous outcomes in delivering software. That is why it has become such a popular name among IT developers and organizations.
Phases of Agile Process Model
The agile model encourages continuous iteration of development and testing in the software development life cycle SDLC. We perform both development and testing activities together to identify defects more effectively. This was one of the major shortcomings of the waterfall model.
Agile Process models are below:
- Scrum
- Extreme Programming
- Adaptive Software Development ASD
- Dynamic System Development Model DSDM
- Crystal
- Feature Driven Development
Let us look at each with the phases involved in them:
1. Scrum
The team should have proper communication, and there should not be any overhead on each associate. The work needs to be shared and must be done parallelly. The process is adaptable to both business and technical challenges.
The phase pattern in the scrum are:
- Backlog: List the requirements in the form of a story and prioritize them in descending order.
- Sprints: This basic work unit must be required to achieve the backlog requirement packet.
- Scrum Meetings: There needs to be at least 15 minutes daily stand up so that any impediments in the sprint packets can be.
- Reviews and Demos: There will be Reviews and demos so that the work packet can be tracked and any changes can be made.
2. Extreme Programming
Extreme programming XP is quite helpful when there are frequent changes in the requirement, and these changes can be incorporated easily. It is based on the object-oriented approach. It follows short releases for the product in its development life cycle.
Each iteration of this model has the following phases:
- Iteration Planning: In this phase, the requirement is understood and drafted as stories and sub-tasks.
- Design: This phase takes care of designing the implementation.
- Coding or Implementation: The requirement is coded.
- Testing: The implementation is rigorously tested for defects.
3. Adaptive Software Development
In this method group of individuals tries to obtain a solution to a major problem which can be difficult for specific individual agents. More emphasis on group communication and adaptive collaborations.
Phases include:
- Speculate: Get the complex requirement.
- Collaborate: Require to work jointly to obtain the desired result.
- Learn: The team has to enhance their knowledge, and solving the complex requirement is great learning. The learning can be from the technical review and retrospective meetings.
4. Dynamic System Development Model DSDM
Teams using DSDM meet stringent timelines for delivery, as it is a type of rapid application development approach. The most important activity of DSDM is actively involving the user and allowing team members to make decisions. Frequent delivery of releases is one of the characteristics of DSDM.
The phase of development framework of DSDM are as follows
- Get the complete requirements, details, and constraints and will come under a feasibility study.
- For the business study, understand the functional requirement of the software.
- Design and build Iterations.
- Implementation
5. Crystal
This agile software development model focuses on the people in the team and their work rather than on processes and tools. Crystal’s model firmly believes that people skills, teamwork, and communication are firmly important in product outcomes.
Crystal methodologies are as below.
- CLEAR: for small and low critical efforts.
- ORANGE: For moderately larger and critical projects.
- ORANGE WEB: Typically electronic business.
6. Feature-Driven Development
As the name suggests, FDD manages the software development process with iterations focused on “features”. These features may be necessarily the product features but also can be akin to the user stories which are there in the sprint
The project life cycle of the FDD model is as follows:
- Develop an overall model
- Build the features list that is considered necessary
- Plan by the features
- Design by the feature
- build or implement by the feature.
Agile Testing and Methods
Agile testing is one of the cores of the agile development process, unlike the waterfall model, where development and testing are linear and sequential. But in agile development and testing are concurrent.
The testing methods of Agile are:
- Behavior-Driven Development BDD: In BDD, Testers, developers, and the required business analysts will communicate and create test scenarios with focused communication so that there will not be any miss. The scenarios are captured in a specific format. The idea of BDD is to create scenarios, build tests that will fail initially, and build software functionality that can be aligned with the testing scenario.
- Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD): Here, the customer, developer, and tester will define, accept, and perform the tests. The customer brings the problem, the coder solves the problem, and the tester tests whether the implementation is according to the customer.
- Exploratory Testing: Here, the test design and execution go together. This type of testing is more focused to test on working software.
- Session-Based Testing: This approach is similar to exploratory testing, but its main focus is ensuring thorough software testing.
When do we Use the Agile Model?
The agile model is beneficial in the following scenarios:
- When there are frequent changes that need to be implemented.
- When the focus is more on developing working software and less on documentation.
- When the planning is not rigid, and the business scenarios are volatile.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Agile Model
Below are the advantages and disadvantages of the Agile Process Model:
Advantages:
- We note a higher level of customer satisfaction because they are frequently involved.
- Testing is concurrent with development; hence better reliance on software is achieved.
- Review and emos make sure the developed software is following the standards.
- Working software developed frequently.
- People can easily understand and adapt to changes.
- We also welcome late changes.
- More importance on communication as well as teamwork.
Disadvantages:
- Estimating effort requirements may sometimes go wrong as it is little stress on planning.
- The documentation focus is lesser, and hence sometimes the possibility of poor documentation.
- The chances of the off-track are more for large projects and where there are frequent changes.
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