Recently I have been reading up on Agile project management methodologies (Extreme Programming, Scrum and a little on Rapid Application Development, EVO and Rational Unified Process). Despite this material being focused on traditional, commercial software development and management, it struck many, quite noisy chords regarding technology development in developing countries. In particular, the focus on starting small, not pre-planning everything from the start, and evolving software slowly through engagement with the ‘customer’, is strikingly similar to the practices recommended in various participatory approaches to development, and in socio-technical discussions around ICT4D projects.
With this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to explore these similarities and see what Agile software-development methodologies might have to offer the ICT4D community – not just in terms of developing software but in the wider development context too.
This piece is not intended to be a robust analysis of the available evidence but more a think-piece that may provide some food for thought to investigate further at a later date. It’s too long and structured to be a simple blog but not rigorous enough to be an academic article, but falls somewhere between the two media. So I have called it a blarticle… Tacky I know but if it works 😉
Also it’s a bit long for a blog so have uploaded it as a PDF, so download some of my thoughts and reflections on Agile approaches to ICT4D and please do add any comments below (or email me) as it is an area I am interested in pursuing further. 🙂
Related articles
- The principles behind the Agile Manifesto (beingnimble.wordpress.com)
- Are Agile Plans Better Because They Are Feature-Based? (agile.dzone.com)
Matt Haikin 
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