Agile development is definitely the way forward for rapid development.

Firstly, it encourages a high level of customer engagement. Users are not asked to read and sign off system development documentation but invited to review prototypes and provide input through 'show and tell' sessions. This is a sure way to get positive input.

Secondly, the development team love it. They are empowered and can use the full spectrum of their innovation and expertise to develop great solutions in a competitive team environment.

However, that is where the benefit stops and there is a big downside. The issue is that it is not possible to accurately predict what features will be delivered at what stage in the programme and what the precise go-live date will be. This might be satisfactory for a internal development which is decoupled from the business , but invariably there is critical business enablement activities to undertake to ensure a successful implementation. These have to be timed accurately as they involve major business change activity and this is difficult with Agile development.

This is why Towers IT have a hybrid Agile- Prince2 methodology which combines the benefit of rapid development with the control and delivery confidence brought with Prince 2.