Agile methodologies

How many times following situations have occured in your projects?
The project had already consumed 30% of the total efforts, as a Project /Program manager,
1. When you have asked your team about the status of the project, the answer was, things are going pretty much fine, team is working very hard, We have finalized high level architecture, we are about 80% done with use cases, 50% with class and sequence diagrams. However, when you have asked customer about the performance of the team, the answer was, he doesn’t see much progress vis-à-vis efforts consumed so far.
2. When you had shown your first deliverable to the client the feedback was, it’s not what I was expecting and the out come was a lot of rework (which varies from rework in requirement analysis to rewriting the code) and lost customer confidence.
Why it happened?

1. Availability of no real data on the implemented features or the status of development in terms of working software.This makes management of the project difficult as there is no data to manage the project.
2. Larger time period of development iterations that has created a mismatch between expectations in terms of requirements between project team and the customer.

How Agile methodologies Solves these Problems?

In Agile methodologies primary measure of progress is working software and emphasis is on customer satisfaction through quick deliveries and developing software in short cycles, called iterations which typically last one to four weeks. Each iteration produce completely developed and tested feature which is a small subset of whole.

Agile software development is a style of software development characterized by an emphasis on people, communication, working software, and responding to change. The most popular Agile methodologies in use are Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Feature Driven Development (FDD), Lean Software Development, Agile Unified Process (Agile UP or AUP), Crystal, and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM). Details available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development.

Key Project Management Principles while following Agile methodologies.

Clarity of vision

1. Reinforce the guiding vision at every opportunity – examine project decisions to see whether they line up with the vision.

Project Planning and Tracking

1. A project plan with clearly defined deliverables (work packages) for each iterations is a must. These deliverables should be further broken down into activities for the tracking purpose.


2. Tracking the progress vis-a-vis the plan baseline on regular basis. The frequency(daily or 2-3 times a week) of this will vary depending on the nature of the project.


3. Immediate root cause analysis if there is a delay in the completion of an individual activity and analysis of its impact on the delivery of the work package and the final product.
   

Team Work and Collaboration

1. Continually encourage teamwork and collaboration. Talk to your team members one-on-one as often as possible to keep a pulse on the heartbeat of the project. Watch for signs of stress – rising tempers, fatigue, etc, and deal with them quickly. Keep abreast of technology so that you can interpret the “tribal language” of your software developers.


2. Establish simple rules, but take every opportunity to conduct process reflections: regularly examine what works and what needs improvement. Act with courage to make changes when you feel they are necessary.


3. Work relentlessly to break down the barriers to information sharing. Keep apprised of cultural sensitivities, egos, and other such factors that may impinge upon its success. Operate with a light touch. Intervene quickly, but wisely to solve personnel issues. Motivate and reward initiative, but manage expectations. Recognize and encourage self-organization, but disallow cliques.