Plan-driven software development versus ASD
| Category | Plan-driven development | Agile development |
|---|---|---|
| Development Model | Life-cycle, stage-gate | Iterative, incremental |
| Focus | Process | People |
| Management | Driving | Empowering |
| Customer involvement and requirements | Formalized requirements captured before initiation of design and development as needed interaction between the development team and customers. Requirements gathering and delivery phases | Active customer and extensive user participation throughout the project, including a high degree of readiness for change. Requirements are estimated for workload, prioritized and contextualized as stories or test cases |
| Team composition | Clearly defined, role-based teams, such as business analysts, developers and testers. Developers work individually within teams | Cross-functional teams, with team members playing multiple roles throughout the project. Standard 40-hour workweeks are employed to preserve work-life balance |
| Product Features | All included | Most important first |
| Testing | End of the development cycle | Iterative and/or drives code |
| Documentation | Extensive documentation, consisting of requirements, design specifications and development plans. Heavily and rigorously use of documentation | Lean and mean. “Just enough” documentation |
| Training | Formal, facilitated training sessions. Often conducted in classrooms using static training materials | Informal training practices to enhance knowledge sharing, such as pair programming and daily stand-up meetings |
| Category | Plan-driven development | Agile development |
|---|---|---|
| Development Model | Life-cycle, stage-gate | Iterative, incremental |
| Focus | Process | People |
| Management | Driving | Empowering |
| Customer involvement and requirements | Formalized requirements captured before initiation of design and development as needed interaction between the development team and customers. Requirements gathering and delivery phases | Active customer and extensive user participation throughout the project, including a high degree of readiness for change. Requirements are estimated for workload, prioritized and contextualized as stories or test cases |
| Team composition | Clearly defined, role-based teams, such as business analysts, developers and testers. Developers work individually within teams | Cross-functional teams, with team members playing multiple roles throughout the project. Standard 40-hour workweeks are employed to preserve work-life balance |
| Product Features | All included | Most important first |
| Testing | End of the development cycle | Iterative and/or drives code |
| Documentation | Extensive documentation, consisting of requirements, design specifications and development plans. Heavily and rigorously use of documentation | Lean and mean. “Just enough” documentation |
| Training | Formal, facilitated training sessions. Often conducted in classrooms using static training materials | Informal training practices to enhance knowledge sharing, such as pair programming and daily stand-up meetings |
Note(s): The table is inspired by Cram and Marabelli (2018), Hoda et al. (2008)