In traditional IT development projects it is typical to write a big spec up-front and then
we resist
changes and put people through a change control committee to keep them to the
essential minimum. Change however is a certain thing in life. When software development projects have a significant amount of complexity, functional and technical, change is inevitable. Agile development principles are particularly handy in these highly uncertain scenarios: project scope/functionality is not fixed; instead the timescale is. During that time requirements emerge and evolve as the product is developed. Of
course for this to work, it’s imperative to have actively involved stakeholders who understand this concept and make the necessary
trade-off decisions, trading existing scope for new scope.
There's a ton of materials out there about Agile development methodologies. One of the most utilized is Scrum.
If you are not yet familiar with the basic Scrum principles I highly recommend you check out Mike Cohn's video channel in Youtube. Mike's communication style is very direct and easy to follow.
Here's one of his videos: Agile and the Seven Deadly Sins of Project Management, enjoy!
