Agile software projects are found to have a 268% higher failure rate than other methodologies

A study has found that projects using agile software development methods are 268% more likely to fail than projects using non-agile methods.

268% Higher Failure Rates for Agile Software Projects, Study Finds - Engprax

https://www.engprax.com/post/268-higher-failure-rates-for-agile-software-projects-study-finds

268% higher failure rates for Agile software projects • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/05/agile_failure_rates/

The survey was conducted by consulting firm Engprax for the book Impact Engineering and involved field surveys of 600 engineers in the United States and the United Kingdom from May 3 to May 7, 2024.

According to the study, projects where clear requirements were documented before development began were 97% more successful; having an environment where problems could be discussed immediately increased success rates by 87%; ensuring that requirements accurately represent real-world problems increased success rates by 54%; and formulating specifications before development begins increased success rates by 50%.

In projects that used typical agile methods, 65% of projects experienced delays, but by implementing the methods introduced in the book ``Impact Engineering'' as mentioned above, the number of projects that experienced delays was reduced to 10%.

A representative methodology other than agile and 'impact engineering' is waterfall development, which has a separate phase in which requirements and specifications are documented before coding. Waterfall is easy to understand and manage, but has the disadvantage that it takes time and cost to change the content after development has started.

The results of this survey not only clarified which parts of waterfall and agile methods are important for project success, but also clarified the high failure rate of agile development. Junaid Ali, author of 'Impact Engineering,' said, 'It's time to question the enthusiastic support of agile,' and called for learning the philosophy of Impact Engineering to deliver high-quality software on time.