I got a really good overview about Agile Methods from a magazine I read this weekend. Surprisingly it was a magazine on testing. It seems the techniques have progreesed past plain development to the world of software test.Let's start with the first, and what I consider the biggest. That's XP which stands for Extreme Programming. It sounds funny when applied to testing. XP was created by a guy working for Chrysler.
XP focuses on delivering small release quickly. Then you can circle back and add more functionality in later releases. That has the distinct advantage of getting something done fast. It also provides a tangible program for the user to try out. You can get some great feedback from such a responsive development cycle.
There are a number of techniques used in the XP world. These include Test Driven Development (TDD), Pair Programming, and Refactoring. Perhaps I will go into these techniques at a later time. In the mean time, I plan on explaining Scrum and a new method called DSDM. Later.
