Agile Software Development The People Factor

Short Description
Over recent decades, while market forces, systems requirements, implementation technology, and project staff were changing at a steadily increasing rate, a different development style showed its advantages over the traditional one. This agile style of development directly addresses the problems of rapid change.

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Content
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Making user experts available as part of the team gives developers rapid feedback on the implications to the user of their design choices. The user experts, seeing the growing software in its earliest stages, learn both what the developers misunderstood and also which of their requests do not work as well in practice as they had thought.
The term agile, coined by a group of people experienced in developing software this way, has two distinct connotations. The first is the idea that the business and technology worlds have become turbulent, high speed, and uncertain, requiring a process to both create change and respond rapidly to change.
The first connotation implies the second one: An agile process requires responsive people and organizations. Agile development focuses on the talents and skills of individuals and molds process to specific people and teams, not the other way around. AGILE IS FOR PEOPLE The most important implication to managers working in the agile manner is that it places more emphasis on people factors in the project: amicability, talent, skill, and communication. These qualities become a primary concern for the would-be agile team. Skill development is important, so that each person can deliver more value with time. The attention to the human issues gives agile projects a particular feel. It is not simply a matter of reducing paperwork and hoping that everything else will fall into place. To paraphrase one developer, “A small, rigorous methodology may look the same as an agile methodology, but it won’t feel the same.” The agile group concept grows to span teams, organizations, and other working relationships. It is very difficult for agile people to function well in a rigid organization— and vice versa.
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