From Waterfall to Agile Software Development

Abstract

Software development can be done in two basic ways - the traditional, so-called waterfall system or agile methods. Waterfall is an approach where individual members of a development team gradually hand off a work task at various stages of work in progress and final completion of the task means that the task has been worked on individually by each worker until finally someone declares it complete. The agile approach, using various methods such as SCRUM, Kanban and others, emphasizes the interactive collaboration of all team members on the task without regardless of their position, with the goal of fully completing the work task in smaller presentable chunks and handing it over to the customer as soon as possible. In the case of the waterfall, the customer will only become familiar with their project once it is fully completed, when the contractor invites them to take over, which can be a period of several months. This implies a high risk of the project deviating from the brief, not understanding the brief in detail, etc., causing additional costs for modification and delays in deployment. In agile methods, the customer is part of the development continuously and in short iterations, comments and develops the project to get the expected result at the end. This was one of the reasons why we at Kros a.s. gradually introduced SCRUM as a method of organizing development in all development teams. SCRUM brought with it a number of practices that once adopted, caused a change in work from individual performance and interest to teamwork with a single goal - to deliver the customer's product with the expected functionality, quality and on time. In addition to higher product quality, a clear way of planning development and easy organization of daily work, we have also gained many more satisfied employees who are interested in the results of their own work.