Agile development might be 25 years old, but it’s withstood the test of time – and there’s still more to come in the age of AI

“I couldn’t imagine it being more impactful,” Jon Kern, co-author of the Agile Manifesto tells ITPro. 25 years on and Kern firmly believes the manifesto – and methodology at large – has withstood the test of time.

Alongside 16 other co-authors, Kern helped curate the Agile Manifesto in February 2001 during a series of crunch meetings at Snowbird ski resort in Utah. The goal was simple: streamline development by combatting “heavyweight processes” which burdened devs and slowed down software delivery cycles.

“It promoted lighter, easier ways of developing software by capturing what a small group of practitioners had in common, and making those attitudes available to others who were struggling under heavyweight approaches,” he told ITPro.

The inspiration behind the manifesto lay in long-running gripes with traditional development approaches such as Waterfall. According to Jon Rimmer, CXO at Mercator Digital, this approach was rigid, inefficient, and at times painfully slow.

A key factor here is that under this methodology, teams worked through phases in a linear fashion, with each of these required to be completed before moving on.

“The traditional ‘Waterfall’ approach meant you could spend six months planning - and then a further three years building - only to be completely divorced from the end users and the real environment,” Rimmer told ITPro.

With Agile development, however, flexibility and adaptability were key focus areas. The 12 central principles outlined in the manifesto prioritized an array of factors, including faster delivery times through now-iconic ‘sprints’, rolling testing processes, continuous feedback, and smaller, more efficient teams.

Martin Reynolds, field CTO at Harness, told ITPro that the impact of Agile was “huge” when it hit the scene, adding that it highlighted and emphasized what efficient teams were already doing at the time.

“I’m old enough to remember when the Agile Manifesto launched – I was coding at the time – and its impact was huge,” he said.

“What it really did wasn’t to invent anything radically new, but codify what the best teams were already doing,” Reynolds added. “It gave the industry a common framework to move away from Waterfall, long release cycles, heavy documentation upfront, and very little ability to change course once things were underway.

“I can vividly remember projects where half the time was spent writing specs, only to hope everything fitted together months later. Agile flipped that on its head.”

What did Agile development actually improve?

Key focus areas of the Agile Manifesto helped drastically simplify software development, Reynolds noted.

By moving teams to smaller more regular releases, for example, this “shortened feedback loops” typically associated with Waterfall and improved flexibility throughout the development lifecycle.

“That reduced risk made it easier to respond to customer and business needs, and genuinely improved software quality,” he told ITPro. “Smaller changes meant testing could happen continuously, rather than being bolted on at the end.”

The longevity of Agile methodology is testament to its impact, and research shows it’s still highly popular. A survey from Forrester in early 2025 found 95% of respondents highlighted Agile practices as critical to their organization.

Notably, 58% of respondents said they’re still prioritizing adoption of Agile practices, underlining its continued popularity among business and technology professionals.

Manageable drawbacks

That’s not to say Agile doesn’t have some drawbacks, however. Reynolds noted that areas such as technical debt can become a burden due to the rapid nature of this approach.

“When teams are under constant pressure to deliver new features, debt can easily be pushed to the bottom of the backlog,” he told ITPro. “The problem is it doesn’t age well – it’s not like wine. It’s more like milk: the longer you leave it, the worse it smells.”

Moreover, scaling Agile across larger organizations has proved troublesome over the course of its lifespan. As ITPro previously reported, Digital.ai’s 2024 State of Agile survey found larger enterprises encountered significant challenges embracing Agile.

Simply put, the larger the company, the more fragmented teams become. This results in a scattered approach where some teams fully embrace the methodology while practices fall by the wayside in others.

Agile in the age of AI

With the rapid enterprise adoption of generative AI over the last three years, Agile methodology has once again been thrust into the spotlight.

Findings from Digital.ai’s 2025 State of Agile Report found AI is now helping supercharge Agile development, with teams using an array of tools to underpin and support processes.

More than three-quarters of respondents said they’re using AI to “save time or reduce manual effort”, for example, using the technology to auto-generate documentation or summarize retrospectives.

According to Kern, AI and Agile are “a match made in heaven” and the advent of the technology means this approach is no longer optional, albeit with a notable caveat.

“You need it more than ever,” he said. “You can build so much more in less time, which can also magnify potential pitfalls if you’re not careful. The speed of delivery with AI can easily outpace feedback, but that’s an exciting opportunity, not a flaw.”

Reynolds echoed those comments, noting that while Agile can be a force multiplier for teams, there are still risks – particularly with the influx of AI-generated code in software development.

“Those gains are often offset downstream, creating more bugs, higher cloud costs, and greater security exposure. The real value comes when AI is extended beyond code creation into testing, quality assurance, and deployment,” he said.

“Applied thoughtfully, it strengthens the fast feedback loops that Agile depends on and helps teams adapt more confidently as business requirements change,” Reynolds added.

“In that sense, AI doesn’t replace or outdate Agile – it reinforces the principles that have kept it relevant for the past quarter of a century and will ensure it remains so long into the future.”

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