Process patterns for agile methodologies

Abstract

The need for constructing software development methods that have been tailored to fit specific situations and requirements has given rise to the generation of general method fragments, or process patterns. Process patterns can be seen in some third-generation integrated methodologies (such as OPEN) and in Method Engineering approaches where they are used as process components. They have also been presented as components in generic software development lifecycles where they represent classes of common practices in a specific domain or paradigm; object-oriented process patterns are well-known examples. Agile methodologies, however, are yet to be thoroughly explored in this regard. We provide a set of high-level process patterns for agile development which have been derived from a study of seven agile methodologies based on a proposed generic Agile Software Process (ASP). These process patterns can promote method engineering by providing classes of common process components which can be used for developing, tailoring, and analyzing agile methodologies. © 2007 International Federation for Information Processing.