Lean and Agile Software Development (continued)

Agile approaches, on the other hand, recognize that not all requirements can be completely known and specified up front. Customers and stakeholders learn more about what they actually need as projects unfold.

In reality, planning projects in detail up front is mere speculation, not a deterministic process that results in a series of predictable activities that must be carried out long after the plan was developed. Project plans are merely a hypothesis. By using frequent short- duration iterations, the team can focus on "burning down" requirements within an iteration with fixed timeframe and cost.

Lean and agile software development enables teams to learn from experience faster and more effectively by planning, delivering, and reflecting on small, incremental deliveries of project work, all the while getting feedback from customers and key stakeholders to ensure that the product meets their needs. Agile enables teams to adapt to changing conditions, learning from one iteration to the next to improve their effectiveness.

As shown in the diagram below, each lean and agile software development release starts with release planning, which is then followed by a number of iterations, each of which includes a short planning phase at the start to develop user "stories" - short statements of what end-users of the system need to accomplish when using the software application.

At the beginning of each iteration, or “sprint,” the team continue reading…