AI Development and Agile Don't Mix Well, Study Shows

Agile software development has long been seen as a highly effective way to deliver the software the business needs. The practice has worked well within many organizations for more than two decades. Agile is also the foundation for scrum, DevOps, and other collaborative practices. However, agile practices may fall short in artificial intelligence (AI) design and implementation.

That insight comes from a recent report by RAND Corporation, the global policy think tank, based on interviews with 65 data scientists and engineers with at least five years of experience building AI and machine-learning models in industry or academia. The research, initially conducted for the US Department of Defense, was completed in April 2024. "All too often, AI projects flounder or never get off the ground," said the report's co-authors, led by James Ryseff, senior technical policy analyst at RAND.