First
paper reviewed: Agile Software Development - A Survey of Early
Adopters
Authors:
Authors:
Leo R. Vijayasarathy Colorado State University
Dan Turk Colorado
State University
Year Published: 2008
Date Reviewed: September
18th, 2011
Review:
The motivation of this paper is mainly to gauge the
acceptance of Agile Methodologies in the industry. This was a result of an
internet survey directed towards Yahoo groups members. Of the 98 respondents of
this survey, 81 were from the USA; 4 each from Canada, India and the UK; 1 each
from Australia, Botswana, Colombia, Mexico and New Zealand.
Although there were many benefits of Agile discovered
through this survey, and most of the respondents were positive about it, there
was a stark number of limitations that were listed. There were 6 main
advantages of Agile including better meeting customer needs and faster time to
delivery. However, there were 15 limitations spotted with it which included
limited support and lack of documentation.
This is a point to ponder upon. Although most of the members
using Agile are happy with it, there were far too many limitations listed out
in sheer numbers. Agile is flexible and widely used, however there must be a
way to reduce these limitations.
One more point that struck me was that most of the
respondents were from the USA. The effect of culture on Agile has not been
considered as determining factor. We have not considered the problems faced by
people in more rigid, hierarchical environments. Agile cannot sustain in a
hierarchy but most companies in countries such as India have a rigid
hierarchical structure. Also, 98 respondents do not seem enough for judging the
success of a methodology.
I feel that we need more information to meter the success of
this methodology.
