In recent times, Agile software development process has become very important. What are the merits using agile process ?

Agile methodology is a type of project management process, mainly used for software development, where demands and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer. It's a mutual cooperative process. It breaks the tasks into smaller increments with minimum planning and with short iterations of 1 to 4 weeks. In each iteration a full cycle of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is repeated and demonstrated to the customer meaning customer satisfaction is prime motto. If bugs are found, they are reported at the end so that it can be taken back in next iteration. The agile teams have a nice property that the team is cross-functional, so that each individual is heard and can contribute significantly. People prefer a Face-To-Face (F2F) communication over written and hard documentation. A small team of size 5-9 members are given freedom to fully come out with their ideas on communicated with peers. In team meeting they discuss about everyday process and set milestones for next days, so that priorities can be set and accordingly can be changed and managed. In summary, merits are: High product quality. Higher customer satisfaction. Increased project control. Reduced risks. Faster ROI. Customer, Developer, and Product Owner interact regularly to emphasize rather than processes and tools. Product is developed fast and frequently delivered (weeks rather than months.). It continuously gave attention to technical excellence and good design. Daily and close cooperation between business people and developers. Regular adaptation to changing circumstances.