Applying Agility to Database Design

Abstract

Agile methods are flexible, allowing software developers to embrace changes during the software development life cycle. But the introduction of agile practices into software organizations may cause unhealthy tensions between the developers and data professionals. The underlying reason is that when agile methodologies are employed, the two communities use incompatible approaches, namely simple design and iterative development, which are practices associated with all agile methodologies, and big design up front (BDUF), a popular database technique. BDUF is inflexible, as once the database foundation is set, it is difficult to make changes throughout the software development life cycle. This chapter describes a database development method for a Web environment. Using this method, a data professional divides the database into loosely coupled partitions and resolves the above conflicts by applying certain agile practices. The result is that the database development becomes more iterative and incremental . This has the added benefit of supporting rapid application development in a dynamic environment, a fundamental characteristic of most Web applications.