What is "agile development"?

Agile development is a methodology that emphasizes collaborative and flexible work. It focuses on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of cross-functional teams. Agile practices promote adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and continual improvement, enabling teams to respond quickly to changes and deliver high-quality software.

In agile development, teams typically work in short cycles called sprints, allowing for regular feedback and changes based on user needs and stakeholder input. This framework fosters collaboration among developers, stakeholders, and users, ensuring that the end product aligns well with customer requirements and expectations.

The approach contrasts with traditional methods, which are often more rigid and sequential, making it difficult to adapt to changes late in the development process. Agile is not primarily focused on data analysis or security; while these aspects can be incorporated into agile projects, they are not defining characteristics of agile as a software development methodology.