In a battle of blogs, two authors went head-to-head to dispute the strengths and weaknesses of the agile methodology in contrast to a more traditional waterfall approach.  The initial 10 points, written by Donald Patti, were examining weaknesses of agile, while the second author, Bob Hartman, countered in support of agile.  Here are three highlights from the face off supporting why agile is gaining traction not only among developers, but throughout entire organizations.

Heavy customer interaction is essential. Regardless of preferred methodology, this should be part of any company’s priorities to build better products.  The earlier customers get involved, the better.  Remaining agile allows for customer feedback to be input throughout the whole project lifecycle and requires business teams and developers to remain more connected.  This might sound like “extra time” added to projects, but this increased collaboration actually has been shown to help teams complete projects faster while still maintaining quality.

Agile thrives with co-located teams – The trend of expanding teams throughout different geographic locations continues to increase.  But it is not only development teams that are scattered across the world.  Organizations have analysts, product managers and engineers around the globe and keeping everyone connected to make sure projects are completed on time and on budget requires an agile process that is flexible and open.

Agile has limited project planning, estimating, and tracking. While this is true, it is important to remember that increasing the amount of time for planning, estimating, etc does not guarantee better products.  What does make a difference is the way in which teams respond to change throughout the project’s lifecycle.  Adopting an agile process is going to put teams in a much better position to face ambiguity as it undoubtedly occurs and respond more appropriately.