Doi: 10.1145/2133806.2133823
Even after almost a dozen years, they
still deliver solid guidance for software
development teams and their projects.
By lauRie WilliamS
What agile
teams think
of agile
Principles
in The mid-1990s, the prescribed means of keeping
software development projects out of trouble and
on schedule was to follow a heavyweight software
development methodology consisting of a complete
requirements document, including architecture and
design, followed by coding and testing based on a
thorough test plan. The philosophy
was often summarized as “Do it right
the first time.” Common belief among
software engineers at the time was that
projects run into trouble when they do
not strictly adhere to a methodology,
and, if only they did, all would be well.
In reality, all was rarely well.
At the same time, a simmering under-
current that had begun to undercut this
doctrine was to follow an exceedingly iter-
ative, lightweight software development
methodology. Purportedly, a number
of independent “rogue” consultants
were rescuing projects in trouble
through variations of these methodolo-
gies. The first to stand up and say, “Look
at me,” and attract wide attention, was
Extreme Programming1 in about 1999.
The creators of other methodologies,
including Adaptive Software Develop-
ment, or ASD, 6 Crysta, 4 Dynamic Sys-
tems Development Method, or DSDM, 11
Feature Driven Development, or FDD, 8
and Scrum, 10 followed suit with “Hey,
I’m doing something like that, too!”
Then, in February 2001, something
remarkable happened: Rather than fo-
cus on their differences and the “com-
petitive advantage” of their own meth-
odologies, 17 creators and supportersa
of the lightweight methodologies gath-
ered in Snowbird, UT, to discuss their
a Software engineers in attendance in Snowbird
included Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Alistair Cock-
burn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James
Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andy Hunt, Ron Jef-
fries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert Martin,
Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland,
Dave Thomas, and Arie van Bennekum.
