Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems and Agile Software Development

Recently academicians as well as practitioners have shown growing interest in agile software development methodologies. These methodologies refer to the development processes that are lighter and faster developed in response to uncertain and volatile market environment. Much of the prior literature does not provide any theoretical basis for these methodologies. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of various characteristics exhibited by the complex adaptive systems (CAS) to understand how agile software development organizations function and organize themselves to accomplish the development task.