History of Agile Software Development- That You Need to Know

PC computing began to gain traction in businesses at the beginning of the 1990s, but software development encountered difficulties. People used to refer to this crisis as the "application development crisis" or "application delivery lag" at the time. Previously, businesses estimated a three-year gap between a validated business need and a functioning application in production. However, this is not how business operates. Even in those days, businesses moved more quickly than they had in three years.

If you had to wait three years to solve your company's issues, your business's requirements, systems, and even the company as a whole could change. Numerous projects were previously postponed by businesses due to this time crunch. Additionally, numerous projects did not meet the requirements.

The application delivery lag was greater than three years in a number of industries, including the aerospace and defense sectors. A system would not become operational for at least another 20 years.

The waterfall method started to be criticized by a number of industries. A lot of software development teams started planning for a new approach in the 1990s. One of them was Jon Kern, a dissatisfied thought leader who became increasingly active in his search for something that was more "timely and responsive."

Jon Kern and his group of 17 software developers began meeting in Oregon at the beginning of the 2000s. They used to talk about ways to speed up software development to get new software to market faster.

The Origins of the Agile Manifesto

In 2001, following the meeting in Oregon, Jon Kern and the 17 groups of developers (Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham, Arie van Bennekum, and 12 others) met at a Utah snowbird ski resort. During the meeting, they talked about how to come up with a better solution to the problems with development at the time. The Agile Manifesto, also known as the "Manifesto of Agile Software Development," was created by the agile group within a few days.

The following are the four guiding principles of the manifesto −

• Processes and tools over individuals and interactions

• Software that works over extensive documentation

• Collaboration with customers over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

The agile team didn't stop at expressing the four values. By stating 12 agile manifesto principles, they added colour to the document.

The Expansion of Agile In 2001

Agile began its journey, but agile's legacy was only beginning. The 17 thought leaders of the agile manifesto began promoting the benefits of agile to the world shortly after that meeting. They decided to form an organization because they wanted to highlight the benefits of the agile manifesto. Additionally, in the history of agile, the Agile Alliance was established.

The Agile Alliance is a non-profit organization that promotes Agile. By providing resources, it aims to assist teams in adopting the Agile methodology. Additionally, the organization strives to enhance the agile approach to accommodate shifting requirements.

Throughout the 20th century, a number of software development teams contributed to the agile methodology after it was first introduced. They gave us the practices of "role-feature-reason," "retrospective," "quick decisions," and many more.

Utah hosted the Agile Alliance's first conference in 2003. It was dubbed Agile 20XX, and its objective was to broaden the scope of agile principles and provide a setting where individuals could develop their ideas. Over the years, the Agile Alliance has increased its presence. They continue to promote agile ideology within organizations, support affiliate groups, and organize agile events today.

Future of Agile

Since its inception in 2001, Agile has been utilized in every industry to address problems. Agile is now having an effect not only on software development but also on manufacturing, human resources, retail, and even organizational culture. Therefore, in this data-driven world, agile is a powerful tool.

Popular businesses like Netflix, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook are flexible. Their company's success is largely dependent on their ability to adapt, even though they don't use any standard agile terminology.

According to a different study, businesses that implement agile software experience revenue growth of 60%. According to another McKinsey study, 90% of senior executives place a high priority on becoming agile, and 10% are now highly agile.

The concept of DevOps—a continuous delivery loop in which new software can be released at any time—is becoming increasingly popular these days. The goal of DevOps is to end agile by providing customers with high-quality products as quickly as possible. However, abandoning the agile method and adopting a novel concept at the moment is difficult. Additionally, it appears that Agile and DevOps are used simultaneously. Therefore, it can be said that Agile will continue to exist into the future.