Internet bank Egg has introduced new financial services
using an emerging model of software development dubbed "agile
programming", which does away with formal
specifications.
The technique was used to upgrade Egg's Money Manager earlier this
year to give customers a summary of all their accounts online. From
its experience on the Money Manager project, Egg said the agile
approach could halve the time it takes to develop software.
Software development has traditionally involved a written
specification, design programming and testing before the user gets
fully involved. With agile programming, an application is split
into small, functional blocks, which can be developed and tested
quickly. A user from the general business is involved in the IT
project from the outset to ensure the code produced meets business
requirements.
Egg's Money Manager upgrade took three months and was carried out
in partnership with software testing company Cresta.
Tony Stansfield, Egg's technology leader, said, "In the early days,
the business guys [at Egg] had reservations about moving away from
a traditional approach but now they are getting what they want in
half the time," said . "We can also take products to market more
quickly than our competitors using agile."