The Agile Manifesto was written in February, 2001 and has since undeniably altered the art and science of software development. Many different documented methodologies were born as a result, all of which seeks to apply the principles outlined within the Agile Manifesto to improve the difficult task of developing software that works, within budget and on time. Much progress has been made. But for the two steps forward, we often take one step back.

Is AppLife DNA an agile tool? Absolutely! AppLife DNA empowers it’s user with the means to analyze software requirements, plan their development, and iteratively define the scheduled requirements into a specification just-in-time to guide development. Then... change the plan, maintain the specification and communicate the change as the real-world craft of software development inevitably demands change. That’s agile.

Unfortunately, many people in the software industry have taken too literal an interpretation of the Agile Manifesto, and digress to advocating for little or no documentation. This argument represents the one step back previously mentioned.

If your team is developing software with little or no documentation, you are unnecessarily putting your project and your application at risk, regardless of the title of the methodology employed.

Reduce your risk by using AppLife DNA to define the requirements about to be developed in the next iteration, sprint, version, cycle, or release. This is not a call to return to a waterfall mindset. Analyze, define, and document just enough to keep development moving. Iteratively add to, and maintain the spec, providing a medium for communications, understanding, and discussion of your software project. Your team will produce better software, faster, and with less rework. That’s agile.