Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Converging Agile Methodologies with Offshore Software Development


It has been a common practice amongst various small-scale software development firms and start-ups to use targeted platforms for their software development processes. While this seems to be an effective solution in development of small projects, lack of well-structured and streamlined plan during development can lead to wastage of money and resources and can ultimately result in failure of a software project.

While the famous saying old is gold works well with almost everything old, it doesn't befit the technological world, especially when it comes to software development services. Traditional software development technologies and methodologies are slow and lack flexibility, waterfall methodology being a prime example. For this reason, nowadays, enterprises are exceedingly adapting agile development practices over traditional methodologies, to accelerate the pace of software development and ensure faster completion of the project. Agile software development allows software firms to keep bureaucracy at bay and strike a balance between paper-work and laissez-faire style.

Well-Known Agile Development Methodologies

Agile development methodologies have taken software development process a notch higher. Various agile methodologies have found fame amongst the development fraternity; following are those that have topped the list.

Scrum: It is an agile methodology that is can be effectively applied to short iterations (up to 1 month in duration) wherein deliverables are nothing but increment of existing software features. A scrum master manages the software development life-cycle  who holds scrum meetings at a daily basis. This agile methodology highly encourages customer-participation in the development life-cycle  as they suggest functional features that can be implemented in a software solution.

Test- Driven Development: Also known as Extreme programming (XP), this agile software development methodology is used when critical functionalities are to be rendered in a short time-frame. This methodology ensures that the deliverables are high in quality by focusing on small releases, customer collaboration, rigorous testing and constant interaction amongst development team members.

Crystal: This is counted amongst the most flexible agile development methodologies, which closely relates with the peculiarities of every software development project and relates each project with a particular current-day scenario. This methodology lays emphasis on leveraging flexibility and simplicity to the development process.

Lean Development: This methodology is based on the concept of lean production and used for iterative processes. The key principles of this methodology are to ‘delivering as quickly as possible’ and ‘deciding as late as possible’. This methodology facilitates communication between software developers and customers and limits the need for individual decision making. The entire focus is shifted upon ultimate value for clients.

Agile software development has taken over the software development realm as an approach that reduces the number of hindrances, improves productivity and enables quality delivery within short time-frames  Today almost every offshore software development company is adapting this approach to conduct better business.

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