The Business Case for Agile

All companies that produce software are in business to make money. It is therefore vital to understand the business case for every aspect of what the company does and how it does it. Agile is no different. Simply putting in place Agile or any other methodology or process without understanding its impact on the business would be irresponsible in the extreme.

What then is the business case for Agile? Is it even possible to make such a case? This paper presents an answer to both questions.

Before we can make a business case for Agile, we must understand what we mean by the term Agile and then move on to the business implications of that definition. "Agile" as used in this paper refers to the methodology and practices that result from understanding and applying the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan[1]

We will examine each value and its associated principles in turn, arriving at some conclusions about the business value of each, and then review the overall business value of Agile as a software development methodology.