Agile Development

Agile methods are a set of development processes intended to create software in a lighter, faster, more people-centric way. You may have heard of Extreme Programming, Scrum, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Feature Driven Development and Pragmatic Programming that have been appearing since the mid nineties, many as a consequence of the need for alternatives to more traditional heavyweight methodologies. In 2001, several of the most prominent proponents of those "lightweight methodologies" started the Agile Alliance and released the Agile Manifesto, a statement of the values shared by them, for those contemplating new agile development processes.

Regardless of the chosen agile process, many teams can benefit by using some core practices (for example, frequent iterations, unit testing, and refactoring). In this set of pages you'll find guidance and ideas on how to set up your agile environment using available Microsoft technologies.

Getting Agile: A Tour Through the Patterns and Practices Lab The Microsoft Patterns and Practices team recently renovated their development lab in order to better support their Agile development methodologies. Movable walls you can write on and "escape pods" are just a couple of the featured additions. Join special correspondent, Brian Keller, and P&P dudes, Ed Jezierski and Peter Provost, for a better understanding of working closer, including productivity growth and successful practices. Learn how you can get agile too, even with little or no budget.

Extend Team Foundation Server To Enable Continuous Integration Many development teams have adopted "agile" methodologies to manage change and to improve software quality. These methodologies promote continuous integration as a practice to build and test software products incrementally as new features are included, bugs are fixed, and code is refactored. So how does Visual Studio 2005 Team System and Team Foundation Server facilitate the process of agile development and continuous integration?

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