Rise of Agile Software Development

[jrineakter]

Agile took direct aim at the overruns that plagued the “waterfall”, top-down style development that was the era’s norm. The Agile Manifesto is simple:

Manifesto for Agile Software Development
The manifesto and its companion principles spawned many official and formalized "processes.” But whether you do Scrum, Kanban, or something else, the basics endure. Put people and iterative, inclusive delivery ahead of elusive concepts like “completeness.” Harness the expertise of users and stakeholders in near real-time. Apply that collective knowledge with each iteration to deliver a better product that people actually use.


Open source also played a major role in changing software delivery. It gave everyone access to incredible technology such as Linux and Postgres. But more subtly, and more significantly, open source changed how teams build software.

People were skeptical: was it as reliable and secure? Turns out, open source was and is more reliable and secure because of the rigor and inclusivity of its community-driven review india whatsapp number data processes, compared to the traditional top-down, closed models. Additionally, by operating in the open, software developers have become more skilled and literate in the craft. Open source projects spawned peer-review, test-driven development, continuous integration and deployment—techniques that every software engineering team worth their salt use today.

If you're trying to hire high-caliber software engineers today and you don't use agile processes or open-source best practices...good luck with that!

Data and analytics leaders must think about this as they try to build data-driven cultures. While waterfalls are a thing of the past in most software development operations, the top-down approach is still alive and well in data and analytics.

The hard truth is that it’s impossible to build data-driven cultures under waterfalls.

You won’t gain adoption within your organization if you don’t bring your community along for the ride. The best data-driven companies like Netflix, Lyft, and Airbnb started with culture and process and then, true to Agile and Open, built or adopted tools that support inclusive contribution and data literacy.

But many vendors are still thoroughly tops-down and closed. They’re designed for a decades-old waterfall culture, but sold as modern solutions. These companies will never use words like “waterfall,” and they’ll spend millions on marketing to convince you they, too, are built for today. But when the sales cycle ends, the agile and open paint jobs start peeling. And you’ll soon realize the expensive thing you’ve bought isn’t a solution at all, but yet another ineffective, technology-before-people stab at fixing your business problems. All that, and you’ll be no closer to the data-driven culture your company needed yesterday.

Enter Agile Data Governance.

What is Agile Data Governance?
Agile Data Governance is the process of creating and improving data assets by iteratively capturing knowledge as data producers and consumers work together so that everyone can benefit. It adapts the deeply proven best practices of Agile and Open software development to data and analytics.