Agile methods have emerged and become popular over last few years as a response to shortcomings of
the waterfall process model. However, agile processes are stamped by some as chaotic processes and
are placed in opposition to waterfall approaches. This paper uses the edge of chaos concept from
complex adaptive systems theory as a theoretical lens to analyse the roles of structure and planning in
the software development process. The software development processes of two teams in a major IT
company, on of whom uses agile methods and the other a waterfall approach, are presented and the
project structure and planning process of each is highlighted then compared. Our research finds that
structure and planning are essential to agile processes and take different forms from the waterfall
model. Contrary to the belief that agile software development may be chaotic we conclude that it is
possible that the waterfall method may be chaotic due to prescribed rather than effective structures
