Seeking the Wind Beneath Agile's Wings

by Sanjiv Augustine

Agile methods (Scrum, XP, Crystal, DSDM, Feature-Driven Development, etc.) have moved into the mainstream over the past few years. Earlier in their adoption cycle, industry leaders such as BMC Software, British Telecom, Capital One, DTE Energy, and Yahoo! discovered that, when implemented appropriately, agile methods accelerate project delivery times, increase customer and employee satisfaction, and enable flexible changes in business requirements. These companies adopted agile methods and, as a result, realized faster throughput and higher business customer satisfaction on individual projects. Based on this evidence and growing success, the move toward agile methods is now a widespread industry phenomenon.