Bottongos.com

Committed for Better Business

agile methodology it has been a widely accepted methodology in contemporary software cultures. With its highly productive and adaptive results, it is a highly favored framework among software developers.

In this article we are going to see two of the most used agile methodologies, which are Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum. Although they follow most of the same iterations, they differ in certain elements. Let’s start with extreme programming.

Extreme Programming (XP)

XP is a agile software development methodology. Like most methodologies, it has a high degree of adaptability and responsiveness. One of the most noticeable factors in XP is that changes are considered absolutely normal throughout the process and are incorporated very frequently throughout the process. On XP, you can see a larger number of releases; which is done to improve productivity and assimilate customer requirements from time to time.

process

The software development process using the XP methodology includes: release planning phase, iterations, and user acceptance testing. However, iterations throughout the process are recommended.

User stories are a unique concept attached to XP. A designated user writes stories about how your software must meet certain demands. Developers use these stories to define user acceptance tests. User stories also help the team estimate the time and resources required to build the release. User stories are generally divided into stacks of related functionality. The client further prioritizes these stacks or iterations so that the most essential tasks are established first.

At the end of each iteration, the user performs a user acceptance test against the user stories. This test determines the completion of the particular iteration and additionally flags errors, if any.

Basic concepts

The XP methodology expects development teams to integrate changes into the development baseline at least once a day. This concept is popularly known as continuous integration. Even all the production code is programmed; that is, a couple of programmers integrate the code at any given time. This methodology believes that a couple of programmers writing the code satisfy the user stories with higher quality (although the time required to do so is not drastically altered). XP places great importance on the simplicity of a product’s design. Although simplicity is defined as subjective, it is faster to achieve a simpler design than an apparently complex one.

Scrum

Like XP, Scrum is another of the most used agile software development methodology. According to Wikipedia, it is an “iterative and incremental agile software development methodology for managing product development.” Unlike XP, the Scrum methodology includes both management and development processes.

The Scrum approach assumes that a need cannot be fully defined early in the process, so the team is encouraged to meet emerging requirements throughout the process.

process

The process begins with the creation of a backlog. This backlog is then divided into sprints where the estimated time for each sprint is noted. Sprints are nothing more than iterations, usually lasting around 2-4 weeks. However, the scrum team does not allow changes in these sprints. Once a sprint plan is established and finalized, it remains unchanged until the end of the sprint. At the end of each sprint, the team aims to achieve a potentially deliverable product with little to no changes.

Team members are regularly updated on questions such as what they did yesterday, what they will do today, and if there are any impediments that need to be addressed immediately. This is called a daily scrum. At the end of each sprint, teams conduct sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives.

The scrum team consists of a scrum master, developers, and a product owner. The scrum master conducts the daily scrums and ensures that any impediments facing the team are resolved to ensure the smooth running of the process. The Product Owner is someone who represents the customer on board. They function like a product manager.

Basic concepts

The key elements of this process are the product backlog, sprint backlog, and burndown charts.

The product backlog is like a wish list of features that the product owner would like to see in the final products. After careful selection, a sprint backlog is created. This backlog consists of a few select items from the product backlog, especially those that the team wants to address first. As a sprint backlog materializes at the end of a sprint cycle, the team moves into another sprint cycle in the same way.

To estimate a timeline for the end of the project, a burndown chart is created. This graph indicates the number of sprints, the time required to complete each sprint, and the time remaining to complete the project, this is very useful to keep the team up to date with the projected release date.

These processes are an integral part of the agile software development methodology. With faster and more widespread adoption of agile in software companies around the world, it is important that you understand and understand the basic functionalities of these methods. Depending on the projects, you may consider adopting the XP methodology, Scrum, or a combination of both. Or you can contact software development services that are skilled in using these methodologies.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *