In the past development has followed a waterfall model, a chain of events, with minimal client involvement, which typically ends in dissatisfaction and confusion.  The old model has been replaced by agile methodology, a system that allows developers and clients to interact and collaborate throughout the development process.  Agile, allows developers to divide the project into phases. Each phase is marked by a component of development, whether it’s a wireframe, a design change, or a completed development, developers benefit by sending completed work for review and feedback from clients and users.  This allows perfection, and terminates the need for extended development once a project is claimed, complete.

Why have other methods failed in the future? The early stages of development are crucial, as requirements are discussed and gathered, in the past once this stage of the process is complete; the project is fully in the developer’s hands.  Where this could be beneficial, there are numerous issues that can arise, such as; assumptions, misunderstanding, and unrealistic time and change management.

Reasons why agile is successful:

• The web-based model allows companies to launch a bare bones version of the product first, get feedback from end-users and then incrementally add new features based on that feedback.
• Products have to be developed with the latest technologies in a short time frame incorporating the need to changes so that the product is not outdated by the time of launch.
• Agile may not address every software development problem, but it is a very profound step in the right direction.

Scrum

Scrum is a set of interrelated practices and rules that optimize the development environment, reduce organizational overhead, and closely synchronize market requirements with iterative prototypes. Based on modern process control theory, Scrum causes the best possible software to be constructed given the available resources, acceptable quality, and required release dates. Useful product functionality is delivered every thirty days as requirements, architecture, and design.