By Hillary Johnson
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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