What are different aspects of Crystal Methods?

Crystal methods together constitute a family of methods called the “crystal family” and were introduced by the Alistair Cockburn around the year of 1990. Cockburn developed these methods after carrying out some interviews of the development teams and observed that some of the teams even though did not made use of the formal methodologies of software development were successful in delivering successful software projects and products. 

The crystal family he introduced can be thought of as a catalogue that includes their methodologies for delivering the successful projects and products. These crystal methods have been categorised under the category of the light weight methodologies. The term “crystal” in the context of the software engineering implies a view on the underlying core of values and principles and the faces are the means representing the standards, roles, tools and techniques.

Cockburn differentiated the methodologies, techniques and policies as:

1. Methodologies: set of elements like tools and practices.
2. Techniques: include skill areas like development of use cases.
3. Policies: statements dictating the must haves of the organizations.

Aspects on which Crystal Methods are Focused

- Below mentioned are the aspects up on which the crystal methods are focused:

1. Interaction
2. People
3. Skills
4. Community
5. Communications
6. Talents and so on.

- Cockburn stated that the above mentioned aspects are much important than the process which should be the secondary focus. 

- Crystal methods are based up on the idea of having variant talented and skilled individuals in the development team so that process element does not pose up a major factor. 

What makes the crystal methods the easiest agile software development method? 

- Crystal methods are very much tolerant to the issue that the teams can complete a task in several different ways.

- Crystal methods over the time have proven to be very effective in avoiding the rigid and strict processes (that were typical of the older development methodologies) and that is why they are very flexible. 

- Cockburn eventually developed may types of crystal methods for each and every type and kind of development team which are required to solve diverse problems. 

- These crystal methods are categorized by different color label denoting the weight of the methodology to be used. 

What are seven crystal methods?

- The crystal family of methodologies consist of seven crystal methods:

1. Crystal clear
2. Crystal yellow
3. Crystal orange
4. Crystal orange web
5. Crystal red
6. Crystal maroon
7. Crystal diamond
8. Crystal sapphire

- Depending up on the size of the project, the colour darkens from left to right. 

- The crystal methods have been scaled to the international standards based up on the size and criticality of the teams.

Properties of Crystal Methods

For all the seven crystal methods, some common properties have been defined as mentioned below:

1. Reflective improvement which involves taking breaks from the regular development routine and think and come up with ways of improving the process.
2. Personal safety involves free speaking within a group.
3. Easy access to expert users.
4. Frequent delivery is the measure of the ability of the method to frequently deliver the iterations of the software product or project. The features to be included in the iterations are decided up on by the developers and the designers.
5. Osmotic or close communication involves flow of information among the teams in a room.
6. Focus involves focusing up on direction in which the project development is taking place and individual task.
7. Technical environment inclusive of the automated tests, frequent integration and configuration management.