Other Practices in Agile

There are many other practices and frameworks that are related to Agile. They include:

• Agile Modeling (AM): Agile modeling is used to model and document software systems and is a supplement to other Agile methodologies like Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), and Rational Unified Process (RUP). AM is not a complete software process on its own. It can help improve models with code, but it doesn’t include programming activities.

• Rational Unified Process (RUP): Created by the Rational Software Corporation, a division of IBM, RUP is an iterative, adaptive framework for software development. According to Rational, RUP is like an online mentor that provides guidelines, templates, and examples for program development. The key aspects of RUP include a risk-driven process, use case focused development, and architecture-centric design.

• Lean vs Agile: Lean development focuses on eliminating and reducing waste (activities that don’t add any value). Lean development takes the principles from Lean manufacturing and applies them to software development. These principles are very similar to Agile, however Lean takes it one step further. In the development phase, you select, plan, develop, test, and deploy only one feature before you repeat the process for the next feature.

• Test-Driven Development (TDD): Test-driven development relies on repetitive, short development cycles. First, a developer writes an (initially failing) automated test case for a new feature and quickly adds a test with the minimum amount of code to pass that test. Then, he refactors the new code to acceptable standards.

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe trademark logo): The Scaled Agile Framework is a very structured method to help large businesses get started with adopting Agile. SAFe is based on Lean and Agile principles and tackles tough issues in big organizations, like architecture, integration, funding, and roles at scale. SAFe has three levels: team, program, and portfolio.

• Rapid Application Development (RAD): RAD’s approach to software development puts more emphasis on development than planning tasks. It follows an incremental model, where each component is developed in parallel. The phases in RAD are: business modeling, data modeling, process modeling, application generation, and testing and turnover.

• Empirical Control Method: With Agile software development, you can use an Empirical Control Method, which means that you make decisions based on the realities you observe in the actual project. The empirical model of process control has three parts: visibility, inspection, and adaption.