Agile software development is one of the buzzwords of the modern software development industry. The rather abstract sounding term describes a set of methodologies to manage and accomplish software development projects. The practice has been widely accepted as "the" way to go in the IT industry over the past ten years.

Especially in the IT outsourcing industry, offshore custom software application development companies work agile in order to deliver services of better quality in faster amounts of development time. In case you are interested in outsourcing custom software application development to an offshore partner, who operates according to the paradigm of agile software development, this article provides some information.

SCRUM is one important method that falls under the umbrella term of agile software development. SCRUM describes how to operate on custom software application development in a sprint-based environment. Sprint execution of software application development projects has the advantage of increased flexibility, improved documentation and a higher emphasis on team-based development.

Secondly, there is the more radical methodology of XP (Xtreme Programming) that focuses on cutting-edge programming elements within the agile software development process. Code testing and code reviews during custom software application development are essential parts of XP. The clarity and transparency of code in software development are in the foreground in XP.

A third important aspect of agile software development is the emphasis on tests during the development process. Regular tests should always accompany a custom software application development processes, even in early stages. That allows programmers to implement changes and correct errors during the development process. Such tests in agile software development are usually automated parallel to the development.

In a nutshell, it is very important to carefully scrutinize any software development project according to its compatibility with agile software development practices. Agile brings good results for some types of custom software application development while it might be less efficient for others. Before companies claim to work according to agile methodologies, they should gain a deep understanding about the impacts of agile on organizations’ management and process structure.