Agile Familiarisation Overview of what Agile is June 2008 Responding To Change

Sound Familiar Time to market for projects is too long Unrealistic deadlines Poor Estimation Requirement Changes Immature architecture and design No Documentation or too much Inadequate Testing

Projects today are... Too slow “My needs are changing, but IT can’t keep up” “Nothing gets done in less than a year” Not valuable enough “Project scope is wrong. And we’ve already coded half the system” “I’ve got lots of documentation that no one uses for a system that doesn’t meet my needs.” “We waste time designing and building features that are never used” Not responsive “Projects force the agency to close on requirements before they really know what they want” “Every little modification results in a change order” Not in control “Don’t know what’s going on with the project” “I’m stuck with consultants that don’t provide value”

Waterfall versus Agile

Comparing Typical water fall model development (With some overlap) Agile model with Iterations Design Development Test Requirements Small iterations help in getting early feedback Requirements Requirements Requirements Design Design Design Development Development Development Testing team peak Test Test Test Development team peak Design team peak Requirements peak No big team peaks/Spikes Development team is idle or not formed Requirements and test team are not on project All the teams formed at start of project Close communication reduces re work Better requirements understanding with user stories Better quality products with regular demos and testing Each iteration gives value to business In production early Ability to absorb change requests easily Little scope in the project plan for accepting changes with out re-planning and long Change request cycles Re work due to late feed back and unclear requirements Business only see finished article during UAT Benefits not realised till end

Iterative Incremental Development “Iterative development is an approach to building software (or anything) in which the overall lifecycle is composed of several iterations in sequence. Each iteration is a self-contained mini-project composed of activities such as requirements analysis, design, programming, and test. Usually the partial system grows incrementally with new features, iteration by iteration; in other words, incremental development.” --Craig Larman

Iterative Development Time Visibility Iterative Development All-At-Once Development

Incremental Development Time Value All-At-Once Delivery Incremental Delivery

What is an Agile methodology? Agile development is a methodology of software development that emphasizes customer satisfaction through continuous delivery of Functional software. Based on a variety of iterative development disciplines Agile methods put developers to work in small teams to tight budgets and short timescales. Agile methods are considered Lightweight People-based rather than Process-based Adaptive rather than predictive Less document oriented than rigorous methods

Why Agile Create and build the right requirements Reduce waste Accelerate client value Improve predictability Provide unparalleled transparency and control to the client

What is an Agile methodology? (Contd..) Agile Method Types

What is an Agile methodology? Agile Manifesto: Values Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Continuous Testing Short iterations (Incremental cycles) Responding to change over following a plan Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Agile summary - on a postage stamp.. establish a vision change always happens so prioritise your activity do something small get feedback decide next steps Personal view of Agile – my words

Agile Myths …. no design no testing no documentation no idea of progress poor quality no plan auditors won’t allow it

Key benefits of Agile Increases Flexibility - Minimizes up-front investment and maximizes return on investment (ROI) by creating an efficient IT development process Delivers the right solution - Aligns users and stakeholders with the right people to deliver the solution that the business actually needs Accelerates Delivery - Iterations get to the right solution faster Reduces risk and increases Quality - Greater stakeholder visibility and control

Key benefits of Agile…Contd Increases Flexibility 2003 Standish Group report highlighted an alarming statistic with technology projects: Nearly two-thirds of the features built into these solutions are rarely or never used Solution: Evolutionary design It is a nonlinear approach where change is expected, and where the team uses actual development to gain empirical data to inform the design Blind alleys or requirements that simply don’t work are abandoned early on or are identified and eliminated before they are even reached The solution evolves over multiple cycles (known as iterations), converging on an optimal response to the business problem with minimal waste.

Key benefits of Agile…Contd Accelerates Delivery Iterations reinforce evolutionary design and form a repetitive 'timebox' mentality for the project teams and clients. This translates into speed: the solution gets delivered faster and earlier Solution The development teams deliver working, fully production-grade software much earlier in the engagement This early software is not merely a proof of concept. The team focuses development first on high-risk and high-value aspects, which means the earliest completed software is actually the most critical part of the solution. Stakeholders can choose to deploy this functionality (they may also elect to learn and improve it to converge on an optimal solution over multiple iterations) Putting working software in front of business users early yields other critical benefits: it helps legitimize the project spend, drives eventual adoption, and, thus, facilitates organizational change

Key benefits of Agile…Contd. Reduces risk and increases quality Stakeholders know exactly where the project stands at all times and can change its course as the business needs change Solution The Story Log The story log is an active, living scope of work that stakeholders use to drive the initiative A story is a work item that delivers tangible stakeholder value within the iteration. Examples include implementing a report, adding a new feature to a web application, etc.

Agile Disadvantages It’s hard! Makes all dysfunction visible Its doesn’t fix anything: the team has to do it Feels like things are worse at the beginning Bad products will be delivered sooner, and doomed projects will fail faster Partial adoption may be worse than none at all

(sumit_gupta2001@yahoo.com)