Towards a framework for understanding the relationships between classical software engineering and agile methodologies

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate in the software engineering (SE) community over the usefulness and applicability of classical SE methodologies versus agile methodologies. Based on an investigation of the philosophical origins, the history and the technological support of representative classical SE methodologies and agile methodologies, a framework is proposed in this paper to help understand the relationship between these different approaches. The framework proposed provides a novel, five-dimensional ways in which to consider the concepts, historical and technological background of the methodologies, the characteristic differences between them, the variety of skills, and the economic, technological and organisational conditions needed to execute them. The framework has been formed by combining five techniques of research analysis: Contextual; Historical; Analysis by analogy; Phenomenological; and Linguistic. This framework (CHAPL) helps software engineers understand the nature of SE methodologies more objectively and at a fundamental level in order to select the best practices and suitable SE methodologies for a software project.