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Comparison of traditional and agile methodologies
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Recommended: Comparison of traditional and agile methodologies
WA9: Choose one agile method (e.g., Scrum, Extreme Programming) and explain it.
The term “Scrum” is an analogy put forth in a 1986 study by Takeuchi and Nonaka, published in the Harvard Business Review. In this study, cross functional high performing teams are compared to the Scrum formations used by Rugby teams. (Scrum Alliance Inc, 2014)
In Scrum, features of the product to be developed are written from the User perspective. Thus, the features are called as “User Story” and the collection of all the user stories is called a “Product Backlog” / wish list which would make the product great. User Stories are chosen from the Product Backlog/ wish list to complete it in a particular Release.
Roles:
Product Owner – is the person representing the users / customers of the Product, who makes sure that right features are chosen on priority basis. Also he is essential to set the direction of the Product.
Scrum Master – He ensures that the project progresses smoothly and every team has the tools, techniques and knowledge to get their job done. He is responsible to set up meetings, monitor the work and facilitates Release Planning.
Developers, Testers, Technical Writers are the other usual roles as in any other development process. A Scrum team comprises of team members from all expertise to complete
How is Release Planning done?
First, User stories from the Product backlog are chosen to develop that would go into a Release which then becomes a part of what is called as a “Release Backlog”. Then the team prioritizes the User stories in the Release backlog and estimates the amount of work to be done for each. Sometimes, larger user stories are broken down into multiple manageable chunks. Therefore, the estimates of all the User Stories to...
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...f a Sprint, the team retrospect in what went right and what are the areas of improvement.
Tools – OnTime, Rally are some of the tools that can effectively capture the Scrum essentials and help in team collaboration, communication, monitoring and tracking the project.
(Axosoft, 2014)
Retrospect & Adapt - Scrum is a flexible Agile development method that needs constant improvement and tweaking. Thus, Scrum can be termed as an iterative, incremental and flexible software development framework.
(Scrum Alliance Inc, 2014)
References
Axosoft. (2014). Scrum Guide. Retrieved from www.scrumhub.com: http://www.scrumhub.com/scrum-guide
Axosoft. (2014). Scrum Guide: Burndowns. Retrieved from www.scrumhub.com: http://www.scrumhub.com/scrum-guide/burndowns
Scrum Alliance Inc. (2014). Why Scrum? Retrieved from www.scrumalliance.org: http://www.scrumalliance.org/why-scrum
A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team 's work into manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge. defines the work breakdown structure as a "deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team”. Basically the work breakdown structure is something that is put together which defines the scope something that project team can understand. On the other hand, project requirement is kind of a document which tell management, what has to be produced and the exact date of completion. It also is based on responsibility factors. Requirements are the expectations which the product need to fulfill. Requirements are collected from the customer, stakeholders and Sponsor.
Management tools such as 3-point estimation, critical path analysis, work breakdown structure and earned value analysis are used.
Agile project management is an iterative approach to the planning and monitoring of project processes. Agile projects are conducted in smaller tranches called iterations with each of these iterations closely reviewed and critiqued by the project team (employees, representatives of the clients etc.). The knowledge gained from this process is then used to ascertain the next steps of the
Based on the 1993, research of Meredith Belbin, a successful team consists of nine roles. The first of these roles is the coordinator. The coordinator is one that has a clear view of the teams’ objective. This person is usually self-disciplined and confident. Secondly, the shaper. This individual is full of drive, makes things happen, and loves a challenge. Third, the planter. The planter is the individual who has original ideas and their strength is to provide the team with new insights and possibilities for change. Fourth, the resource investigator. This individual has the strongest contacts and networks. They are enthusiastic and brings information from the outside. Fifth, the implementer. Implementers are well organized and effective in turning ideas into tasks. Sixth, the team worker. This person is aware of all the teams’ needs and concerns. Team workers are supportive, sensitive, and promotes harmony to reduce conflict. Seventh, the specialist. The specialist provides specialist skills and knowledge but does not always see the whole picture. Eighth, the monitor evaluator. The evaluators are good at seeing all options from every angle. They have a strategic perspective and can judge situations accurately. Last is the completer/finisher. The completer/finisher is the individual that drives the deadlines and makes sure they are achieved. (Teamwork,
Scrum meetings held every morning between the developers in each team and product goals and objectives were discussed and problems encountered.
Project planning in teams is an integral constituent of team dynamics. When a team has been already formed it is time for it to start working on a project in order to reach the goals of the team or company in a whole. It is necessary to keep in mind two peculiarities about team projects. The first peculiarity is that all projects no matter what their goals are need to be carefully planned and structured before the implementation. And the second peculiarity is that the given projects will be performed not by an individual but a group of individuals, which may result in a certain conflict of interests or other problems, which may be encountered while working with a group of people.
In the waterfall method, the steps have to be finished iterative, meaning the next step cannot be started until the previous step is completed. Once the current step is completed, then the next step can be started and so on. The customer does not get a working build during any of the steps and cannot make any changes in the scope at all. Once all steps are completed, the end result is given to the customer and then they can deploy and hope it does what they are needing it to do. If any of the steps need to be changed, then the whole process will need to be restarted from the beginning and the process began again. In agile methods, the process is more flexible. This method is flexible and can allow changes after each iteration. The goal of each iteration is to provide a working build so that the customer can give feedback on it and changes can be made, if needed, so that all requirements are met, or if requirements have changed since the initial build of the
According to Dyer & Dyer (2013) research, to improve the team performance it is important to consider the four “C”s. It is essential that team and its member understand the meaning of the four C’s in order to have a high performing team. The four “C”s are (1) The context of the team, (2) The composition of the team, (3) The competencies of the team, and (4) The change management skills for the team.
Unified commitment from the members. Team members totally agree and are unified under the goal; they work harder than their normal level of strength for achievement of goal.
Communication: it’s good to have communication in a team because all the members know what’s going on and who is doing what. The staff will also benefit if there’s good communication. If there’s no communication there is no team.
Most of the software development projects change just during the development is in process. This is the reason that agile methodology is best for these projects. There is a room for change in them. Software developers follow these methods and this is the reason that they have further modified these methods according to the different types of projects they confront in their development time.
In conclusion there were a number of underlying factors which contributed to the poor performance of the ‘A Team’. Within the causes of group development, group effectiveness and group dynamics there were a number of problems outlined. Initially when the team came together there were a number of costly mistakes made which meant that the team was never going to be able to maximize its potential. Fundamentally the poor performance of the group was due to the fact that the direction and approach the group would take could not be clearly outlined to other members as a result of a lack of communication. The dynamics of the group also played a major part in the unsatisfactory performance largely because social loafing was present amongst members.
The Scrum approach is pretty flexible. This enables the project to be able to adapt whenever a new situation arises. This aspect of Scrum is pretty important since all projects undergo change during its scope. The ability to adapt allows for your project to stay relevant. This is especially essential in the fast moving world of technology and software. Scrum takes on an empirical approach. This means that there is an understanding that all projects will be faced with unpredicted challenges. Scrum maximizes on its abilities to deliver and respond to these changes. Scrum is a simple concept which tackles difficult tasks. The core of scrum can be divided into 3 primary roles; product owners, development teams, and Scrum masters.
A perceptive company with an ‘agile’ system can rapidly identify an alteration in the environment and gather useful information to quickly respond and avoid a major internal impact. This agility to quickly r...