We just successfully finished an Agile Development Project in almost record time - in about 45 days or so.
We thought about some of the things that made a difference and it seems to be a few things above all:
a. Clear idea of where we wanted to go although we were not clear about all the details. Agile is good for these kinds of projects since you are fairly flexible in where you want to go and have not etched in stone how to get there. In many software development projects this is the mistake many people make thinking that it is indeed possible to think of everything upfront!
b. A good Story Tracking tool. We found the free (currently at least) PivotalTracker SaaS service to be very good.
c. Rapid turnaround of testing and making sure that we do not miss anything in doing this rapidly!
Of course, the complexity of the software you are developing and the complexity of the problem may make some projects unsuitable for Agile Development but in this case it was the most appropriate thing, at least!
The most remarkable thing about this was that the engineers were 6000 miles away but it helped that I visited the engineers in person before we got started with the whole effort. That always puts a face to a name when we talk over the phone and makes a lot of difference!
Yes. It does work! May not in all cases but where it is perfectly suited, it works well.
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, responding to change over following a plan! - The Agile Software Development Manifesto
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