In our rapidly evolving technology environment, the agile approach to proprietary software development can yield great results for publishers. As with most technology projects, the single greatest challenge to this radical approach remains the people and politics (the wetware) involved, not the software technology itself. This challenge involves not only everyone understanding, but capitalizing on the fact that  software-enabled publishing is primarily about people and process, not about artifacts (printed or downloaded books, static deliverables like shrink-wrapped software), and this process enables and makes sustainable the constant state of change that our publishing industry has become.

Here are some features of agile publishing projects:

• Rapid to Market
• Iterative software development cycles or sprints (days or months)
• Work done by self-organizing, interdisciplinary teams (publishing staff, vendors, authors, users)
• Mutual accountability and trust
• Regular Scrumming—face to face whenever possible
• Transparency
• Openness to harnessing change (even if it’s in the last minute!)  for publisher’s competitive advantage
• “Working software is the primary measure of progress” (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)

Once a project is live in production, one cannot consider the site as a static deliverable, a codebase of perpetual value.  Successful agile methods persist over time, and as the site matures the focus of work shifts to accommodate more than the outward facing features. This includes aspects such as:

• Data management and security
• Code review, maintenance, and code optimization
• Feature-independent testing (involving developers, publisher, customers), automated where appropriate, using multiple browsers
• Regular review and analysis of user stats
• Capitalizing on and otherwise harvesting the intellectual capital of the team
• Documentation (FAQs, commented code, use cases, other) ongoing as needed only
• Ongoing awareness of competitive landscape; future-proofing

The Industrial Age with its concrete deliverables recedes in a cloud of zeroes and ones; agile methodology offers a new means of publishing, defined by an ongoing state of change. The key to success lies in trust and cooperation among teams of publishing professionals.