The Agile Dictionary: A is for Agile

Writing a dictionary turns out to be a fair piece of work. Who knew? We have had a soft launch this week, with Chris Sims handed out a hundred copies of a "sampler edition" at Agile Roots. And The Agile Dictionary now has a live website, with a handful of definitions, and counting. It is ready for your perusal and commentary at www.agiledictionary.com, where you can even sign up to get the Word of the Week delivered to your inbox. Don't think of it as spam, think of it as an entertaining diversion, something fun to read while you avoid answering all those other supposedly urgent emails.

Without further ado, here is an entry from the Dictionary:

Agile

An umbrella term for iterative, incremental software development
methodologies. Agile methodologies include Extreme Programming (XP),
Scrum, Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Lean, and
Feature-Driven Development (FDD). Agile methodologies arose in
opposition to the traditional, phase-driven “Waterfall” development
method, which emphasizes top-down project management, “big design up
front,” silos for architecture and design, coding, and testing, and
extensive documentation. Agile methodologies share an emphasis on small
teams delivering small increments of working software with great
frequency while working in close collaboration with the customer and
adapting to changing requirements.

Etymology

The term “Agile” was first used by a group of Software pundits who
gathered at a ski lodge in Snowbird, Utah for the express purpose of
naming and defining the greater movement in which they deemed themselves
to all be participants. The original invitation to Snowbird went out to
those interested in “lightweight” development frameworks. The attendees
agreed that they didn’t like the negative connotations of that term,
and agreed to adopt the term “Agile.”

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