Agile Methods
The Problem:
Agile Methods describe the state-of-the-art for software development processes, team organization, and project management. Agile
Methods, such as SCRUM, are, in many ways, common-sense written down. However, that begs the question as
to why that needed to be written down, and the leads to the observation, that writing it down is not enough. Mastering Agile Methods
is about experience, not theory.
Software’s biggest assets are its flexibility, and the speed at which something can be produced. Software
development’s biggest challenges are that software is so flexible, and the artifact produced is intangible.
Agile is a great framework for taming these issues and breaking the cycle of a project being on time and 90% done, right up until it
is due, and then being months late and hardly meeting expectations. However, Agile has many adoption pitfalls, including a
tendency to become “software cowboys,” abandoning the transparency, critical inspection, and adjustments that make
Agile Methods work.
Organizations with Enterprise Architecture (EA) often find there is a great tension between EA and the Agile development teams.
The EA approach can be seen by Agile as too plan-based and too top-down; the Agile approach can be seen as too tactical and too
chaotic by EA.
The Panoscopix Solution:
Panoscopix provides this service on-site, with expert consultants that have years
of experience using Agile Methods in real-world situations, including Agile development within an organization that is using
Enterprise Architecture (EA). This leads to a unique insight of the opportunities and pitfalls that can occur as teams
adopt Agile, and an experience-based mentoring to overcome those challenges. Panoscopix consultants have experience in all
three Agile roles: SCRUM Master; Agile Developer; and Agile Team Customer.
Panoscopix consultants have the breadth of experience to work with not only the Agile Development Team, but the senior-managers,
project-managers, and business-customers that are looking to ensure their agile experience isn’t a journey to oblivion.
We have helped several organizations with the change-management that is required to successfully adopt Agile.
A particularly problematic issue can be in bridging the Enterprise Architecture (EA) perspective and Agile methods perspective.
However, advances in tools and processes allow for this gap to be closed, producing an
Agile EA
that can still effectively govern the enterprise and its projects in a way that even the agilist developer agrees adds value!! This
results in a “hands-on architecture” that enhances systems
projects through information manifested in system-processable forms (as opposed to documents), automated system-of-systems testing, and
governance of solution components and systems integration. EA becomes more relevant; agile development becomes more effective.
The result is a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of agile development, reduction of the adoption risk, and alignment of
systems and enterprise concerns.
Deliverables:
Examples of the deliverables provided in this service:
- Readiness assessment to guide the organizations adoption of Agile Methods.
- SCRUM training (formal or informal).
- Early adopter project selection and jump-start, by joining the development team as Scrum Master, Developer, or Customer coach.
- Agile project acceleration, by joining the development team as mentor, Scrum Master, or Developer.
- Refactoring analysis and implementation.
- Test automation and test-driven-development analysis and implementation.
- Agile EA training (formal or informal).
- Establishing agile-friendly governance and integration testing infastructure.
