Agile methods also have differences to consider. The differences can be looked at across the following criteria:
•Size of development team. Considering the adoption of methods, the size of the development team is one of the main decisive issues.
◦XP and Scrum, for example, are focused on small teams (e.g. <10 people).
◦FDD and DSDM claim to be capable of scaling up to 100 developers. Note that with agile, when the development team gets larger so does the amount of documentation and communication and this tends to make the project less agile.
◦RUP is known as a heavier methodology more suited to larger teams and projects. Industry material does exist on how to scale RUP down to smaller teams and projects.
•Commercial support. The method is supported by various commercially sold tools or work.
◦RUP stands out from other methods for being a complete development suite supported by various commercially sold tools. This is something that is mostly missing from other agile methods. Rational Software sells popular tools to support the RUP phases (e.g. Rational Rose, a ULM modeling tool and ClearCase, a software configuration management tool).
•Coverage across the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The method is suitable for all phases in the SDLC.
◦Agile methods are focused on different aspects of the SDLC (i.e. requirements, design, code, test, implement, maintain). DSDM and RUP cover the entire SDLC and do not require complementing approaches to support software development; something other methods require to a varying degree.
•Other agile method support. The method is supported by other agile methods. For example, the adoption practices of another agile method are allowed in order to replace some of another agile method's practices (e.g. reflection workshops).
◦RUP Plug-Ins for XP offers guidance for developers by combining the strengths of the core elements of RUP with XP's agile methodology.
•Situations for adoption. The method specifies sample situations for adoption to help users narrow their method selection and choose the most appropriate method.
◦With Scrum there are two types of situations for adoption: existing projects (development environment and technology to be used exist but the team is struggling with problems related to changing requirements and complex technology) or new projects.
◦FDD is suitable for new projects, project enhancing, upgrading existing code, projects tasked with the creation of a second version of an existing application.