Adoption of agile methodology in software development

As adopting Agile software development becomes a trend, there is a need for a more structured definition of what is Agile and what is a high-level of Agile maturity. Traditional development methodologies rely on documents to record and pass on knowledge from one specialist to the next. Feedback cycles are, in many cases, too long or even nonexistent. Agile principles emphasize building working software that people can get hands on quickly, versus spending a lot of time writing specifications up front. Agile development focuses on cross-functional teams empowered to make decisions, versus big hierarchies and splitting by function. It also focuses on rapid iteration, with continuous customer input along the way. This paper deals with Agile methodology and scaling. The special highlight is put on people investigating their contribution in Agile approach success. Some reflections after using Agile in our own organization are also presented.