Agile development: overcoming a short-term focus in implementing best practices

Agile development deemphasizes long-term planning in favor of short-term adaptiveness. This is a strength in a rapidly changing development environment. However, this short-term focus creates a temptation to neglect best practices that are essential to long-term success. This report outlines my experience as a software developer in a leading internet portal that thrives on agile development using SCRUM. It describes the problems that arose when best practices were ignored and how our team overcame them.