Agile Methodology

Agile is a mindset. Agile is a term used to describe approaches to software development emphasizing incremental delivery, team collaboration, continual planning, and continual learning. There are multiple agile methodologies or frameworks available nowadays. like Scrum, Kanban, Scaled Agile, XP, DSDM, Lean etc.

This methodology follows neither a purely sequential approach nor does it follow a purely iterative approach. It is a selective mix of both of these approaches in addition to quite a few new developmental methods. Fast and incremental development is one of the key principles of this methodology. The focus is on obtaining quick, practical and visible outputs and results, rather than merely following theoretical processes. Continuous customer interaction and participation is an integral part of the entire development process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

Agile methods break tasks into small increments with minimal planning and do not directly involve long-term planning. Iterations are short time frames (timeboxes) that typically last from one to four weeks. Each iteration involves a cross functional team working in all functions: planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing. At the end of the iteration a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders. This minimizes overall risk and allows the project to adapt to changes quickly. An iteration might not add enough functionality to warrant a market release, but the goal is to have an available release (with minimal bugs) at the end of each iteration.^[10] Multiple iterations might be required to release a product or new features.