Creating a Dual-Agility Method: The Value of Method Engineering

Agile approaches to software development provide flexibility within the method, but provide little or no flexibility to support software process improvement (SPI). This second kind of flexibility is important to permit organizations to improve with time. To accomplish such improvement, a method-engineering approach is shown here to be useful. Examples of the application of method engineering to agile method construction are given based on the use of the OPEN process framework. A dual-agility method to support both intraproject and interproject flexibility can then be constructed by the selection of appropriate method fragments from this repository with the use of the accompanying guidelines. This is illustrated in an industry study of an organization transitioning to an agile software-development environment in which a minimalistic agile method was first constructed and then enhancements were made as the organization itself improved the process.