In some recent calls with prospective clients I seem to have spent some extra time discussing the benefits of our decision to focus on the Agile Development methodology. More and more people are beginning to understand the benefits of agile versus the time and effort spent in the past focused on scope documents, dense detailed project specifications, and trying to peek into the future so they can plan accordingly.

I’ve found that the simple 4 points found in the Agile Manfiesto help explain our choice and picque the interest of those unfamiliar with agile.

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

While these 4 points get to the core of agile, there is also an understanding that all of the items on the right side are in themselves valuable, but only within the context of the greater goal of developing a meaningful end result.

Tools and process are very important, and if you would like to know more about ours, check out Chris’s post from earlier this week.

For more resources on Agile Development, check out the links below:

http://www.agilealliance.org/
http://www.targetprocess.com/blog/
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/agile-methods.html