Chapter Wrap Up

Summary

The “Agile Manifesto” formulates a value system for software development. Even though it provides fundamental meaning, it is not very explicit and leaves room for interpretation. This freedom has the risk of processes being sold as being agile, when they are really heavyweight. The resulting change in culture and the ability to adapt as necessary are some of the clear signs of an agile process.

Switching to agile development may arouse some fears, which in turn could foster mistrust in the success of the approach. Although some artifacts and tools promise putative security for controlling and steering a project, this security is just that—putative. It is much more important to establish an environment of trust, which will allow open and honest communication even if the project is in a bad shape. Trust can only be built by transparency, consistency and integrity.

In order to ensure the provision of a system with the highest business value possible, developers must work very closely with their customers during project development. This involvement not only helps the developers to better understand the requirements, it also helps the customer determine what kind of system would serve his business needs best.