The Wikipedia entry for Agile Software Development is a good place to brush up on the concept. In a nutshell, "agile" means "adaptive to immediate needs" and the fastest-possible build and test methods. This is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from the conventional "waterfall chart" type of development in which requirements, design, implementation and test are all separate functions that are done time-sequentially and probably at very high cost.

(Please note here that it's the test methods implied by agile development projects that are the main concern to us. We naturally enough believe we already know the best way to quickly and cleanly and easily test and confirm an application being developed with "agile methods" if it involves any kind of web browser or web services enablement.)

To dig deeper, you can also visit the Agile Alliance website where you will find reference to the Manifesto for Agile Software Development dating from 2001.

Possibly also of interest if you are tracking this area is the new on-line magazine and newsletter Agile Journal featuring Liz Barnett as Editor in Chief. Vol. 1 No. 1 is now available. For a first issue, this one seems to be very well done, including book reviews, a couple of good feature articles, and a bevy of other resources.

OK, you can go ahead and wonder: If you cross AJAX technology with the Agile development methodology what do you get? (Answer: we don't know either, but it has to be interesting. We will just have to wait and see!)