Software Engineering for Students A Programming Approach

These are qualified by the statement that while there is value in the items on the
right, the items on the left are valued more. Thus agile methods do not throw out the
baby with the bath water; they simply give precedence to certain choices.
The first value recognizes that individual creativity and group collaboration are more
effective than following a prescriptive methodology. The second value recognizes that
software is code, not the accompanying documentation. The third value recognizes that
a good relationship between the clients and the developers is more important than
arguing about contracts. The fourth value prioritizes users’ changing needs rather than
adhering to some meaningless inflexible plan.
Twelve supporting “statements” give guidance on achieving the four core values:
1. our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and frequent delivery
of software
2. deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference for the shorter timescale
3. working software is the primary measure of progress
4. welcome changing requirements, even late in development
5. business people and developers work together daily throughout the project
6. build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support
they need, and trust them to get the job done.
7. the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation
8. the best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing
teams
9. continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhance agility
10. agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely
11. simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential
12. at regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes
and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
We shall see how these can be put into practice shortly, when we look at extreme
programming.
Tools for agile methods
26.2 The agile manifesto 331
Many people believe that appropriate software tools are vital to successful software
projects. Agile methods take an independent attitude to tools and use whatever tools
are useful, particularly the simplest tools available. This might mean a computer aided
software engineering (CASE) tool but it also includes non-computer tools. Here are
examples.
Sketches can be made on paper, using color as appropriate for all sorts of diagrams,
informal and more formal (such as UML diagrams). A scanner or digital camera can
record the results for computer storage.