This framework was developed from the Rapid Application Development (RAD). Like other agile methodologies it aims to enable teams to quickly respond to changing requirements or market needs by evolving their products with lightweight planning and continuous learning. The ASD approach encourages teams to develop according to three phases: speculate, collaborate, learn. These three phases are nonlinear and overlap. You cannot collaborate without learning, or learn without collaborating. You cannot speculate without learning, or learn without speculating. You cannot speculate without collaborating, or collaborate without speculating. So it is likely that you end up performing all three phases of ASD at the same time. These three phases capture the dynamic nature of ASD, which was intended to go deeper into the change of management style and beyond simply changing the project lifecycles.

Capital requirements for start-up companies have dropped significantly. It used to cost $5 million to start a company: $1 million for hardware, $1 million for software, $1 million for database, $1 million for advertising, and $1 million for people. With cloud computing, open source software, social media, outsourcing and crowdfunding these costs have virtually been eliminated for many types of businesses.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development was published in 2001, in which 4 values and 12 principles were defined. It embodies mindset, values, and principles that constitute an agile approach. “Agile is a mindset defined by values, guided by principles, and manifested through many different practices. Agile practitioners select practices based on their needs.” - Agile Practice Guide

Jeff De Luca developed the agile method FDD in 1997. Back then, he applied it to a time-sensitive project with 50 developers. Since then, the method has been continuously developed and is often used, especially in large companies. There is also an FDD community with its own website. The method was first publicly discussed in 1999 in the book Java Modeling in Color with UML. The focus of the method is the «feature». Each feature represents added value for the customer. A feature is defined as follows: "The features are small," useful in the eyes of the client "results."

The Agile Unified Process (AUP) is a simplified version of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) from 1995. It describes an approach to developing business application software while using agile techniques, test driven development, and database refactoring to improve the productivity. The framework is use-case driven, architecture-centric, iterative, incremental, parallel, risk-confronting, object-oriented and component-based. It was developed by Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson.

The disciplined agile tool kit provides guidance to help increase effectiveness in the team and the entire enterprise. It helps evolve the way of working in a context sensitive manner and it is a people- and learning-oriented agile approach.