Agile Methodologies: Scrum and Extreme Programming

Agile software development methodologies are superior design methods
Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Agile software development methodologies are superior design methods
Introduction
Project management of software development has experienced rapid changes over the years. Most of these traditional methodologies are linear and sequential and hence find it challenging to overcome the volatility problem. Highsmith refers to these methodologies as ‘fat process’ (Highsmith, 2002). Agile methodologies came in to solve the problem of volatility. Volatility is the ability of a company to cope with the dynamic changes that occur every day and affect the business such as technology and market changes (Cockburn, 2002). The traditional methodologies like waterfall could not meet the changing requirements of the user. Once the project has started, it was easy to adapt to any change that occurs during the development stages. Agile software development methodologies are flexible and use simple and short iterations. Apparently, these methods have had many advantages over the conventional methods. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the criteria of effectiveness used to support the claim that agile software development methodologies' and especially scrum and extreme programming, are superior design methods. This paper affirms that agile software development methodologies' and especially scrum and extreme programming, are superior design methods by explicating their advantages over the traditional project methodologies.
Arguments
Agile software development methodology is a conceptual framework used by project managers in software engineering projects (Version one, 2016). It is based on models that are in support of iterative and incremental software development (Turk, France, & Rumpe, 2014). It does not use concrete steps of software development. There are several agile methodologies such as dynamic systems development model (DSDM), crystal clear, feature driven development, extreme programming, and scrum (James, 2013). Most of the agile methodologies differ from the traditional waterfall methodologies in that they work in short time iterations. These alterations last for one week to one month. Each of the iterations is like a miniature project (Association of Modern Technologies Professionals, 2016). Each iteration consists all the tasks that the whole project contains. These are; planning, analysis of requirements, designing, coding, testing, and documentation. This makes the entire project to be less risky. At the end of every iteration, the project team evaluates the priorities of the project.
Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile methodology that has emerged as one of the most controversial and popular methodologies. It focuses on high-quality, early and continuous delivery (Paulk, 2002). A scrum is a lightweight, agile methodology that is used in project management. It is widely applied in the management and control of incremental and iterative projects. Its approach to agile development of software marked a dramatic departure from the traditional waterfall methodology. It has become popular in the community of agile software development because of its productivity; simplicity and ability to per...