Agile Web Development Methodologies: A Survey and Evaluation

Dynamic and accessible web systems have gained utmost importance in modern life. Due to the competitive nature of such systems, they need to be superior as to performance, scalability, and security. Web systems typically require short time-to-markets, and it should be possible to easily implement new requirements into working web systems. These ideals have made agile methods especially suitable for developing such systems, as they promote productivity, facilitate continuous interaction with customers, and enhance the flexibility and quality of the software produced. When starting a web development project, selecting the methodology that fits the project situation can be an important factor in the ultimate success of the endeavor. In order to facilitate the selection process, we provide a criteria-based evaluation of fourteen agile web development methodologies. The evaluation results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the methodologies as to their general processes, modeling languages, agile features, and web development facilities, and can therefore help web developers choose the methodology that best fits their project needs.