Improving development through Agile

LightSky, like many other Web firms, uses the analogy of home construction to explain the Web development process.

To have a quality outcome that meets all the specifications - both functional and aesthetic - we have to follow a process that includes discovery, brainstorming, planning, and building. Budgets determine the general scope and features, and once the homeowner sees the structure they may decide to change the details; crown molding becomes a must-have, and granite countertops become a like-to-have or a won’t-have-until-later. Perhaps the contractor recommends installing a central vacuum system because there are so many stairs, which means that the living room closet will be smaller. That’s essentially how the Agile process works; it allows for flexibility rather than rigid requirements that lock the client and the developer into a plan that may be several months or years old.

Agile offers several benefits over traditional waterfall development:

• Iterative process that allows for evolution as needs or priorities emerge, shift, or recede.
• Emphasizes collaboration and adaptation.
• Delivers functional code at shorter, regular intervals.

Agile liberates both the client and the LightSky team to continually bring new ideas to the table, uniting both entities into a team rather than dividing us into sides of “client” and “vendor.”