Light-Weight Development Method: a Case Study

The Internet technology has changed the way software applications are designed, built, and distributed. The technology enables us to deliver applications easily and quickly, and provides more efficient methods to do maintenance and updates. Web application developments present specific challenges to developers, such as content-rich, security, volatile system requirements, application scalability, rapidly evolving development tools, and ever increasing demand for fast system deployment by customers. These add up to the difficulty of software project planning, budgeting, and controlling. In recent years a number of new development methodologies, called agile methodologies, have become increasingly popular in the software industry. This paper reviews several major agile methodologies, compares them with traditional methods, and proposes a selection framework for business. The paper also provides a case study of an early attempt to use agile development at Intel. The success at Intel proved that agile methods can be used to develop successful web-based applications at large organizations.