Agile Journal from CMC Media- October 2006 - Vol. 1 No. 8
Read it online - http://www.agilejournal.c
om
The Agile Journal is an online magazine from
CMC Media focused on providing readers with information and
resources they need to develop software for an agile
business.
Driven by Editor in Chief and noted analyst Liz Barnett,
the Agile Journal delivers thought leadership and pragmatic
advice from a wide range of industry experts, as well as
direct feedback from hands-on developers and project
managers.
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In this Issue
=================
1. Managing Agile Projects – How Hard Can It Be?
2. Most Software Development Metrics Are Misleading And
Counterproductive
3. How Agile Development Is Changing The Role Of Project
Managers, Business Analysts, And Testers
4. Agile Offshore Development: 10 Ways to Make it Work for
Your Organization
5. Managing Process Facilitators
6. Managing Offshore XP Teams: Organizational Models and
Tools
7. So You've Decided To "Go Agile" - A Pragmatic
Approach To Onboarding Agile Project Management
8. CASE STUDY: Betting On Agile
9. FEATURED BOOK: Managing Agile Projects by Sanjiv
Augustine
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Editor's Note
Liz Barnett
=====================================
Managing Agile Projects - Oct 2006
What does it take to manage an Agile project - let alone a
globally distributed Agile project? Developers approach
Agile processes with ease, yet many IT managers struggle
with the transition. Each week, I read the wealth of
experiences shared on industry online groups and blogs and
discuss the challenges with Agile teams. It's clear that
many companies have succeeded with Agile development and are
now looking to expand Agile concepts to their management
practices. This month's Agile Journal looks at the issues of
planning, organization, facilitation, role definition, and
general best practices for managing Agile development.
Ross Pettit looks at the challenges of introducing Agile
processes to an organization and at the up-front activities
that are critical to success. Dave McMunn discusses the
organizational impact of Agile development and proposes
changes to the roles of project managers, business analysts,
and testers. Mike Griffiths advocates metrics that are
better-suited to managing and measuring Agile projects. And
Mishkin Berteig introduces the need for Agile process
facilitators and how they can help improve the effectiveness
of the work that teams are doing.
Best practices for managing offshore Agile development are
in high demand. Peter Vaihansky shares his experiences at a
large client in organizing distributed Agile teams and
providing effective tools. And Bala Muthusamy nets out his
top ten list for global Agile development, including a
particular focus on implementing distributed Scrum. And for
our case study, Robert Laman, Dannielle Read, and Andy
Takats offer their advice for tackling some major challenges
on an Agile project for Harrah's Entertainment.
I certainly expect management issues to remain at the top of
most Agile teams' lists, especially those running
distributed projects. So please share your experiences and
war stories! And if you like to contribute an article on
this or another upcoming topic, go to the "Letters to
the Editor" in the forum at AgileJournal.com.
Liz Barnett
Editor in Chief
editor agilejournal.com
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Managing Agile Projects – How Hard Can It Be?
by Liz Barnett
=====================================
When projects fail, regardless of the methodology, project
management typically gets the blame. Developers write great
code, QA staff can find bugs (albeit some more quickly than
others), and subsequent iterations will be able to address
any gaps or misinterpretations of customer requirements. But
since the project managers are visible to the business staff
and have overall responsibility for delivering the project,
they take the heat. Even though Agile projects emphasize
self-organizing teams and tight IT/customer collaboration,
they're not immune. Organizations must learn how to manage
Agile projects - a pretty big challenge since most do a
lousy job of managing more traditional IT projects!
Agile teams do a good job of articulating their overall
goals. They must:
* Reduce risk;
* Improve delivery capability; and
* Deliver value quickly.
Read more >>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/115/
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===========================================
Most Software Development Metrics Are
Misleading And Counterproductive
by Mike Griffiths
===========================================
The software development industry has a poor track record
for developing and employing effective software metrics.
This is because most of the metrics selected are tangential
to the true goal of software development - delivering
business value - and instead focus on software attributes
and accounting measures.
Metrics such as lines of code per developer week, function
points created, hours worked, or budget consumed appear
important measures, but they have dangerous and
counterproductive implications. The use of these metrics
rewards the wrong behaviors; the phrase "you get what
you measure" highlights the problem. By tracking lines
of code written, visible and unconscious incentives to
generate lots of code are established. On the surface this
may seem attractive, as a manger of a project it is
gratifying to see lots of code being written, but what is
really required is functionality completed, business value
generated, and customers satisfied.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/107/
=======================================
CM Crossroads Webcast Series:
Knowledge-centric Application Lifecycle Management –
what you need to know
=======================================
While application development conjures up many thoughts, the
fundamental core lies in the knowledge gained and used
throughout the development process. From informal ideas
and feature requests, to formal specifications, design
documents, development plans, test cases, release notes,
and user documentation, Application Lifecycle Management
(ALM) is a knowledge-centric process. Historically,
however, development teams have managed these vast
repositories of knowledge in virtual silos, with each
functional group building their own knowledge isolated from
the team as a whole. In today’s competitive software
development environment, the silo-based models will no
longer support the ever-changing demands of large
distributed organizations.
[Sign Up for this Webcast]
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mcrossroads.com/webcast/1807
===================================================
How Agile Development Is Changing The Role Of
Project Managers, Business Analysts, And Testers
by Dave McMunn
======================================================
On a recent engagement, my company walked into an
organization that was struggling to adopt agile software
development practices. There was clearly energy and
willingness on the part of the development team to try new
practices. However, the confusion around new
responsibilities of the project manager (PM), business
analyst (BA), and quality assurance tester (QA) was
preventing progress. While the developers and architects
were being challenged to adopt some different practices, the
main responsibilities of their "roles" remained
the same - to design, code, and unit test. In contrast, the
responsibilities of the PM, BA, and QA were undergoing
change that was in conflict with the organization's
traditional expectations. The training, skill development,
and management structure were not aligned to the new demands
of supporting an agile development process.
This article discusses how the roles of PM, BA, and QA
change with agile development, and the implications that
shift has for people and organizations.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/109/
======================================================
Agile Offshore Development: 10 Ways to Make it Work for Your
Organization
by Balasubramaniam "Bala" Muthusamy
======================================================
Is Agile offshore development an oxymoron or is it the best
of both worlds? In principle, this software development
approach seems best suited for teams that work in close
proximity to each other - those that have grown accustomed
to relying on real-time "hallway conversations" to
move project plans along to the next phase. However, in
practice, many pioneering companies have discovered Agile
offshore development is a powerful marriage of rapid,
iterative processes and highly talented multi-shore
engineering teams that improves responsiveness to market
trends and customer requirements. For software companies
questioning how to manage an inherently collaborative
process across 8,000 miles, this article provides ten tips
to make Global Agile methodologies work for your
organization.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/111/
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======================================================
Managing Process Facilitators
by Mishkin Berteig
======================================================
The term "Process Facilitator" refers to the
people in your organization whose primary responsibility
lies in improving the effectiveness of the work that the
teams are doing.[1] This responsibility is mainly around the
process the teams are using, but also encompasses less
tangible aspects of work such as team development,
organizational culture change, administrative and technical
tools, and working with other Process Facilitators both
inside and outside of your organization. Since the role of
the Process Facilitator is so broad, it can be difficult to
understand and effectively support Process Facilitators who
report to you. This paper attempts to help you with this
challenging task.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/110/
======================================================
Managing Offshore XP Teams: Organizational Models and Tools
by Peter Vaihansky
===================================================
The essence of Extreme Programming (XP) is making the
customer a part of the team who works very closely with the
developers, ideally communicating on a daily basis. However,
what about a situation where your development team is
offshore? Is it possible to have the best of both worlds,
realizing the gains of offshoring without losing the
benefits of XP? How do you keep the momentum and the
communication flow going, at the same time ensuring seamless
integration of the deliverables into the customer's
production environment at the XP pace? This article will
cover four years of cooperation between StarSoft and one of
its major customers, a leading computer chip manufacturer.
In this period of time, StarSoft has delivered 61 successful
projects to the customer, with five more currently in
development, utilizing XP exclusively. We will discuss the
organizational model, roles, and responsibilities used in
this highly successful relationship, as well as the tools
used to monitor
and manage the projects daily.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/108/
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======================================================
So You've Decided To "Go Agile" - A Pragmatic
Approach To Onboarding Agile Project Management
by Ross Pettit
======================================================
Taking an Agile approach to software development for the
first time is no small task: there are a number of
different practices to onboard and process change is
disruptive, frustrating and potentially demoralizing. How do
you onboard Agile practices and still meet delivery
requirements? To what extent can these be introduced,
especially the first time around, so that they stick?
There are two things to balance when introducing new
practices: adopt at a pace that doesn't push too far too
fast and simultaneously establish a "critical
mass" of core practices to reap symbiotic benefits.
While there are no hard-and-fast rules on how or where to
begin, the right sequence can increase probability of
success and set the stage for greater process adoption.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/106/
======================================================
CASE STUDY: Betting On Agile
by Andy Takats and the Harrah's Slot Marketing team
======================================================
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is the world's leading gaming
entertainment company, currently poised for continued
expansion and growth. Its Enterprise IT team is also poised
for continued success by virtue of an aggressive foray into
Agile software development methods. Harrah's IT desires to
provide an Agile alternative to traditional waterfall
projects where it makes sense based on predetermined
criteria.
This article describes the challenges in managing Harrah's
first Agile pilot project - code-named "Slot
Marketing" for this article.
Read More>>
http://
www.agilejournal.com/content/view/113/
======================================================
FEATURED BOOK: Managing Agile Projects by Sanjiv Augustine
by Liz Barnett
======================================================
In his book Managing Agile Projects, Sanjiv Augustine
defines Agile Project Management (APM) as "... the
work of energizing, empowering, and enabling project teams
to rapidly and reliably deliver business value by engaging
customers and continuously learning and adapting to their
changing needs and environments." This is a mouthful,
but hits on two of the most important concepts that Agile
teams must learn: to empower teams and to deliver business
value. To do so, Augustine proposes some core practices that
managers should follow. APM is a very different approach
from the traditional plan-driven project management
approaches common to most IT projects, that focus heavily on
costs and controls.
Read More>>
http
://www.agilejournal.com/content/view/114/33/
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