Introducing agile methods in a large software development team: The impact on the code

Abstract

The adoption of agile methods of software development has gained momentum within the software industry. NW Soft Solutions Ltd. (a pseudonym) is a large software development unit that develops large-scale network centric software solutions. NW Soft Solutions Ltd decided to adopt an agile development methodology. In this case study, we use object-oriented metrics to evaluate and characterise the source code of an application produced by a team using agile methods. We compare the results obtained from the source code produced using agile methods with the results for source code produced for a similar type of application by the same team using a more traditional methodology. The contrast is stark. This case study shows that agile methods have guided the developers to produce code that manifests better quality and maintainability characteristics. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.