Agile being the latest in the methodology is being followed on at Adiance...

Instead of forcing business stakeholders (we'll call them "the customer") to define every detail, agile planning says that they can plan incrementally, starting with the most important features. The development team can then determine which of those features they can complete in a specific timeframe or "iteration" that typically ranges from 2 to 4 weeks.

Each iteration allows the customer to choose additional features (or enhancements to existing features) and to prioritize the remaining work. The development team can learn from each previous iteration to improve their estimating. If they complete all of the features agreed to, the team can start working on the next priorities as determined by the customer. If they can't complete the set of features, again, it's the customer who gets to decide which ones to defer until later. .

What's so special about this? It changes the dynamic between the customer and development team from an adversarial relationship, into one that is based on mutual respect. The customer knows they always have the final say on what should and should not be worked on. The development team has the reassurance that they are working on the most important things. .

The key to all of this is communication and rapid feedback. The customer communicates in the form of clear, prioritized needs. Development communicates in the form of estimates for specific, measurable functionality, which is critical in the prioritization process. Finally, there is rapid feedback to both teams on how things are going. Project risks are discovered early, and changes in priorities are likewise not only feasible, but expected. The development team delivers working software at the end of each iteration, even if it's just a skeleton of the finished product. This tight feedback loop is a big part of why an agile approach works better. .

Agile projects don't use traditional project plans that dictate every task, when it will be completed, and who will work on it. The tools used for planning include a release plan, and a series of iteration plans. .

A release plan is just a list of the features most wanted by the business, and roughly when these might be available. The release plan doesn't necessarily drive the project, its just a way of communicating the shared vision of the team. Commercial software is often developed with an understanding of key features that need to be in the next release, and this is the sort of thing a release plan captures. The marketing team can refer to this for external planning purposes, and it provides a roadmap for future functionality. Most agile teams try to plan for 2 to 3 releases ahead. .

An iteration plan is a tactical development plan for a specified period (usually 2 to 4 weeks). The iteration plan takes the highest priority features (often called "user stories"), and based on developer estimates, selects a set of them to work on for the iteration. Each story is broken down into tasks by the development team. Tasks can then be individually estimated, and developers can sign up to work on them.

Adiance has been working on various IT and ITES projects for over three years now. We are a group of highly skilled and experienced developers, architects and project managers always striving to deliver better solutions to our customers. Our teams are available to customers over US phone, MSN, Yahoo and Skype besides email and Ticket Management Systems during the course of project life cycle. Developers can be available to customers during their business hours if needed.

Customers trust us as their reliable onsite - offshore service provider because We help them achieve their goals to 100% satisfaction from our office in NJ, US and a 24x7 global delivery center setup at Ahmedabad: one of the low cost cities in India having lesser attrition rate.

We are a reasonably large company with a mindset of a small company by our expertise in cutting edge technologies and state of the art Agile project handling techniques we deliver professional high quality solutions in rapid time frame to our customers.