Although most application developers now consider agile a mainstream approach, database developers — especially those working on relational databases — have been slower to embrace it because of the need to understand and respect the state of a database when deploying changes. Thus, database professionals have had to rely on manual processes that do not scale up to the faster development cycles at the heart of agile.

The resulting challenges include:

• Ensuring that the code works properly

• Ensuring that the application functions not only today, but also years into the future

• Dealing with everyday setbacks, such as coding errors and rework, in the most effective way

• Making sure development projects are versioned properly

Although most application developers now consider agile a mainstream approach, database developers — especially those working on relational databases — have been slower to embrace it because of the need to understand and respect the state of a database when deploying changes. Thus, database professionals have had to rely on manual processes that do not scale up to the faster development cycles at the heart of agile.