Jake Lawlor has posted an article called Portrait Of An Agile Development Process which describes what an Agile Process should be.
According to the man:
The term agile refers to a set of patterns and practices that builds a highly collaborative partnership between the business and IT, promotes team communication and delivers functional software releases in iterative cycles. By delivering business value early and often, the process allows for a natural feedback loop to adjust and improve the software.
The difference between an agile process and other processes is that an agile process is crafted to integrate seemlessly into its environment. Rather than dictating rigid process practices that may not apply, the team selects the right process fit for the environment and makes adjustments every iteration, tuning it, to result in an increased team output and quality.
The great thing about this article is that he outlines a bunch of agile patterns and practices in nice easy to understand paragraphs. All in all a great piece. Now if only my companies agile process was just as ... erm... agile.
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Portrait Of An Agile Development Process