Software evolution in agile development: A case study?

Abstract

The agile development method (ADM) is characterized by continuous feedback and change, and a software system developed using ADM evolves continuously through short iterations. Empirical studies on evolution of software following agile development method have been sparse. Most studies on software evolution have been performed on systems built using traditional (waterfall) development methods or using the open source development approach. This paper summarizes our study on the evolution of an enterprise software system following ADM. We evaluated key characteristics of evolution in the light of Lehman's laws of software evolution dealing with continuous change and growth, self-regulation and conservation, increasing complexity and declining quality. Our study indicates that most laws of evolution are followed by the system. We also present our observations on agile practices such as collective code ownership, test driven development and collaboration when the team is distributed. © 2010 ACM.