Although CEO Satya Nadella did not exactly use the term agile development, he detailed that Microsoft is considering to use various agile techniques to help the corporation achieve a higher productivity.
Thus, Microsoft plans to divide its current teams of engineers. Separate team of testers are no longer needed when its current developers also test and fix bugs. Agile development offers an incremental and iterative approach to software design. Programmers will be able to deliver functional code in a time-frame of two to four weeks. While this is much better then the old “waterfall” method where building software could take from several months to even years, it will still be required to have many iterations on the proposed method until the created software reaches a comparable maturity.
Agile development is indeed highly flexible but it does have its cons. Some of the most noticeable drawbacks are its hard to predict budgets and time-lines. Expert analysts have mixed opinions about Microsoft decision. But with a continuously increased popularity of agile development Microsoft was expected to “jump on the train” at some point or another. Massoud Marzban, a strong advocate of agile development had the following to say: “Microsoft would do well to adopt an agile approach in how they go forward. It not only accelerates the process of software development it requires fewer people, produces more solid applications and for us it has meant much faster times to market.”
