I am currently learning a lot about agile development, test driven design, etc. in .NET. Development methodologies are very interesting to me, and I would like to do some more research on what kind of impact a methodology really has on a project. I did some basic research for my masters degree on this topic recently and it seems that the methodology has a significant impact on the overall success of a project- especially in terms of understanding user requirements. I think agile development is a great methodology for doing just that. However, I do have some reservations in terms of agile development when creating larger projects that tend to have strict budgets. One big question- if you need to estimate out a project and do not know the requirements, how can you promise functionality for a certain price (this is a pretty big issue for most businesses where IT is treated as a cost center)? It would seem that you can only deliver as much as you can deliver in the amount that the user is willing to pay for the project.
At any rate, NWNUG has an upcoming user group meeting that will discuss agile software development using ASP.NET. Ken Kutz will be giving the presentation. Ken and I go “way back“- he is a former boss and great friend of mine. He has a really unique view on software development- really puts a lot of emphasis on the relationships, processes, etc. Something I think any software developer would find comforting and helpful. Ken has also developed a really great tool (dubbed 'The Code Generator') and will be demonstrating an “agile” technique for software development using it. If you can make it out to the user group Tues (Feb 22nd) you won't regret it!
Presentation information:
Ken Kutz will present on Agile Software Development and also demonstrate an automated ASP.NET code generator. Ken will explain how Agile methodologies can reduce cost and risk while improving customer satisfaction and maximimizing return on investment. The presentation will emphasize the "People and Process" aspects of software development. Ken will also demonstrate a web-based ASP.NET code generator he has created (with some help) that generates T-SQL stored procedures, data access classes, edit pages, feature-rich data grids, dynamic data-driven email lists, statistics, Flash-based graphs, Excel and PDF output, web services, and dynamically generated clickable flowcharts that work with SQL Server databases