Agile Software Development

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Agile Software Development

• Presented by Ashirul Mubin

2
The Problem

• We cannot anticipate the complete set of
  requirements early in the project life cycle
• Traditional process management strives to drive
  all variations out of processes it assumes that
  variations are the result of errors.
• Team can be more effective in responding to
  change if it can
• Reduce the cost of moving information between
  people
• Reduce the elapsed time between making a decision
  to seeing the consequences of that decision.

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Agile

• Meaning Quick moving, nimble, active
• Perspective business and technology worlds have
  become turbulent, high speed and uncertain.
• This requires a process to both
• Create changes
• Respond rapidly to those changes

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Agility

• Dynamic, context-specific, aggressively change
  embracing, and growth oriented.
• About creating and responding to changes
• Developers (primary drivers of projects success)
  coupled with an intense focus on effectiveness
  and maneuverability.
• Have common focus, and respect a collaborative
  but speedy decision-making process ability to
  deal with ambiguity.
• Mutual trust Agility depends on trusting
  individuals to apply their competency in
  effective ways.

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Agile Software Development

• Views change from a perspective that mirrors
  todays turbulent business and technology
  environment
• Agile recommends short iterations (2-6 week
  range) during which the team makes constant
  trade-off decisions and adjusts to new
  information.
• Combine short iterative cycles with feature
  planning and dynamic prioritization.
• Constant feedback on technical decisions,
  customer requirements, management constraints.

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Agile Software Development cont.

• Team proximity and intense interaction between
  team members.
• Lightweight methodologies a means to achieve the
  more relevant end customer satisfaction and
  high quality.
• Recognize software development as an empirical
  non-linear process.

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Agile Approaches

• In US
• Extreme Programming, Crystal Methods, Lean
  Development, Scrum, Adaptive Software Development
• In Europe
• Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
• In Australia
• Feature-Driven Development (FDD)

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Basic Principles

• Two principles in agile development
• Working Codes tell the developers and sponsors
  what they really have in front of them (as
  opposed to promises as to what they will have )
• Using people effectively achieves
  maneuverability, speed, and cost savings. People
  can transfer ideas by talking face-to-face.

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The Manifesto
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Principles Behind Agile Manifesto

• To satisfy the customer through early and
  continuous delivery of software
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in
  development
• Deliver working software frequently
• Business people and developers must work together
  daily throughout the project
• Working software is the primary measure of
  progress
• The team tunes and adjusts their behavior to
  become more effective.

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Agile Team

• Agile teams are characterized by
  self-organization and intense collaboration,
  within and across organizational boundaries.
• Manager working in Agile-manner places more
  emphasis on people factors in the project
  amicability, talent, skill and communication.
• The agile group concept grows to span teams,
  organizations, and other working relationships.
• It is difficult for agile people to function well
  in a rigid organization.

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Individual Competence

• Developers wont succeed in producing a system if
  they lack the basic competency for the job.
• Agile processes are designed to capitalize on
  each individual and each teams unique strengths.
• Every process must be selected, tailored, and
  adapted to individuals on a particular project
  team.
• To work jointly to improve the knowledge and
  skill of individuals. A skilled person can
  deliver more value with time.

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Agile Organization

• Practice leadership collaboration (rather than
  command control management)
• Agile organization and agile managers set goals
  and constraints, providing boundaries within
  which innovation can flourish.
• They understand that who makes decisions isnt as
  important as collaboration on information to make
  informed decisions.
• They are macromanagers rather than micromanagers.

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Changes due to Agility

• Agile development carries with it the implication
  of changing work habits (select appropriate
  approach adjust and improve accordingly).
• It affects the POWER STRUCTURE within an
  organization, because it spreads out the
  decision-making authority (programmers vs.
  managers).
• Agile practices stress early involvement of test
  groups and the need for (continuous) rapid
  feedback.

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How effective is Agile?

• Survey of 200 people from a wide range of
  organizations
• More organizations are using at least one agile
  methodology
• Agile methodologies show slightly better delivery
  performance than rigorous methodologies in terms
  of business performance, customer satisfaction
  and quality.
• Agile methodologies scored better than rigorous
  methodologies in terms of employee morale.

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Shortcomings

• Imposing agile principles on process-centric,
  non-collaborative, optimizing organizations is
  likely to fail.
• Attempting to get close user collaboration with
  organizations that have little time to spend with
  developer will not work for agile methodologies.
• Agile development is more difficult with large
  teams.
• It does not say much about the relationship
  between the development and quality assurance
  groups.
• Not suitable for developing mission-critical
  systems or rigid environments.

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Conclusion

• Agile development excels in exploratory problem
  domains (extreme, complex, high-change projects)
• It operates best in people-centered,
  collaborative, organizational culture.
• This approach has proved to be effective at
  solving many problems and at forging attractive
  work environments in many organizations.