Comparing Methods

Up till now we have discussed two Agile methods (Scrum and XP) and RUP as an iterative but more process oriented method. In this section we will compare these methods and investigate how they could enhance each other.

Introducing Agile

In the mid 1990’s, as a reaction to heavyweight waterfall based processes, some other methods emerged. Good examples of these methods are DSDM, RAD, Crystal, XP and Scrum. Not that the people behind them were against process. They just strived to free themselves of Dilbert-like manifestations of process in corporate life, of people hiding behind pointless regulations, managers disrupting the working environment and enforcing unfounded plans and teams producing hundreds of pages of documentation that were impossible to maintain and hardly ever used. They strived for cooperation instead of throwing the result of hard work over a cubicle wall without a proper transfer session and without a clue of what the person on the other side of that wall would be going to do with it.