Empirical Evaluation of Agile Processes

Abstract

Presently, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence and very little empirical and validated data of agile methods effectiveness. Much of the evidence is based on the stories and preferences of those who practice it. Imagine the benefits of knowing that an XP project expends more effort understanding software requirements than does a team using a typical traditional, or waterfall approach. Imagine the benefits of being able to predict that for this particular combination of customer, product, and project team, a small bit of modeling is going to benefit the team more than a strict XP implementation. The world we seek is one that demystifies the success of agile methods and supports everyday practitioners to apply the right method at the right time. We believe measurements are key to making these decisions and to making agile methods more accessible.