Agile programming 10 years on: Did it deliver?
It has been nearly 10 years since programming dignitaries released "The Manifesto for Agile Software Development," which promoted processes that accommodate changing requirements, collaboration with customers, and delivery of software in short iterations.
The agile manifesto was forged in February 2001 when a group of developers convened in Utah to find an alternative to documentation-driven, "heavyweight" software development practices, such as the then-gold-standard waterfall method.
Although actual agile practices predated the Utah meeting, that gathering served as a watershed event that helped propel the concept. Fast-forward a decade, and agile software development is becoming more commonplace, with software houses adopting agile methodologies like Scrum and XP (Extreme Programming). Despite potential pitfalls, experts in the agile space agree that implementation of agile practices has benefited software development overall.
