Successful Product-based Agile Software Development without Onsite Customer: An Industrial Case Study

Software industry is increasingly using Agile Methods due to its benefits. However the way industry practices agile methods is some time divergent to the basic Agile Principles. For example customer involvement in the entire software development process is considered essential; but under certain conditions this requirement is not so critical. We have studied in detail such an adaptation by a large software company using Agile Method i.e. SCRUM. The organization develops software products using SCRUM; however, after initial development; they customize the product for their potential customer. At no time (during initial development or customization stage), real customer is present at the development site; but still their products are immensely successful in terms of number of products sold, and customer satisfaction. In the real world case study we have analyzed reasons for the success of the organization and have studied in detail the circumstances which obviate the need of readily available customer. The results show that, extensive domain knowledge, prior experience of the product and experienced workforce mitigate the need of onsite customer.