Der Artikel Agile Methods. The bottom Line. von RobertMartin erklärt, warum Agile Methoden notwendig sind bzw. welchen Sinn sie haben:

• The bottom line for agile methods is that they provide the data that makes managing software projects possible. They allow a software project to be managed like a business.
• No real data comes out of the project, and so there is no way to make any management decisions.
• The reality of Agile methods like Extreme Programming (Especially Extreme Programming) is that they produce periodic reliable data about the progress of the project. They don't report progress on models.
• They regularly report verifiable and accurate data on implemented features.
• ... these reports come at least twice per month.