Analysis of agile software development from the knowledge transformation perspective

Abstract

While the Agile Software Development (ASD) has been successfully promoted in the last 15 years, there is no agreement on how to determine whether a particular project is agile or not. Some practitioners consider agility as strict usage of a specific methodology, e.g. SCRUM, others consider agility as adhering to Agile Manifesto. The lack of common view on ASD prevents creating common guidelines on when the usage of ASD is appropriate. This paper presents a model of ASD that helps to differentiate it from the traditional, phase-based development, and more strictly defines the area of its applicability. The model has been built based on the knowledge transformation perspective, as the author considers it to be the most differentiating perspective when comparing ASD to traditional software development. For building the model, the ideas from SECI model of Nonaka have been exploited. The results, in the form of requirements to be fulfilled for successful employment of ASD, are demonstrated through analysis of completed ASD projects.