Advances in Using Agile and Lean Processes for Software Development

Abstract Software development processes have evolved according to market needs. Fast changing conditions that characterize current software markets have favored methods advocating speed and flexibility. Agile and Lean software development are in the forefront of these methods. This chapter presents a unified view of Agile software development, Lean software development, and most recent advances toward rapid releases. First, we introduce the area and explain the reasons why the software development industry begun to move into this direction in the late 1990s. Section 2 characterizes the research trends on Agile software development. This section helps understand the relevance of Agile software development in the research literature. Section 3 provides a walk through the roots of Agile and Lean thinking, as they originally emerged in manufacturing. Section 4 develops into Agile and Lean for software development. Main characteristics and most popular methods and practices of Agile and Lean software development are developed in this section. Section 5 centers on rapid releases, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, the latest advances in the area to get speed. The concepts of DevOps, as a means to take full (end-to-end) advantage of Agile and Lean, and Lean start-up, as an approach to foster innovation, are the focus of the two following 6 DevOps , 7 The Lean Startup Movement . Finally, Section 8 focuses on two important aspects of Agile and Lean software development: (1) metrics to guide decision making and (2) technical debt as a mechanism to gain business advantage. To wrap up the chapter, we peer into future directions in the area.