AGILE Projects

Agile methodology is an approach to project management. It helps teams

respond to the unpredictability through incremental, iterative work cadences.

Project Management

“The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the

goals of the project charter while adhering to the four classic project

constraints – scope, time, cost, quality”

What is AGILE

Agile methodologies generally promote a project management process that

encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that

encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, and a business approach

that aligns development with customer needs and company goals.

Introduction

Managing Conflicting Changes and Work

Group Project Management

Importance of Requirements and Specifications

Comparing Agile to Other Methods (Penny Exercise)

Milestones

Project Conflicts

Conflict in project management is inevitable (especially from different backgrounds).

The potential for conflict is usually high because it involves individuals from different backgrounds and orientations working together to complete a complex task. Conflict over different objectives and

expectations Unclear roles and uncertainty about who has the

decision-making authority Interpersonal conflicts between people

Managing Conflicting Changes

What happens if work has been modified by multiple users since the last iteration?

What are your mechanisms to informs the team there is a conflict prevent further changes until this conflict is

resolved Usually this will require a discussion between

the authors of the changes The conflict can then be corrected

Managing Conflict II

Here is a method known as the “win-win” approach to conflict resolution:

1. Before you start resolving a conflict, analyse it by asking questions from the conflicting parties

2. Once you have sufficient information about the conflict, actively seek common ground in order to emphasize the agreement side of things – this starts the conflict resolution process on a positive note

3. Now ask the conflicting parties to brainstorm possible solutions to the issues at hand

4. Once you have identified resolutions, agree upon guidelines on how to implement these resolutions

5. Document and then implement the resolutions

Managing Conflict Task (10min)

In groups discuss the following questions:

1. Who decides which changes are kept and which is deleted?2. What impact do you see during the project?3. What mechanisms would you put in place to ensure the correct

decisions are made?4. What are the different scenarios causing conflict

Repositoryof Tasks

Doc AUser 3

Doc AUser 1

Doc AUser 2

Group Project Management

What is Project Management? Sequence of tasks Consumes resources Achieves an objective Results in something new

Golden Rules of Project Success Develop a comprehensive realistic plan and keep it up-to-date Gain consensus on project outcomes Make reasonable resource requirements Build the best team you can and take care of them Keep the stakeholders informed Be willing to change or to try new things

Project Members need to keep the project information current

Project Stages

Initiate Plan Implement CloseDefine Project Scope Obtain resources

Identify expectations Identify tasks Lead team

Sequence Tasks Shut down operations

Select team members Define resource needs Disband team

Set goals and objectives

Conduct post-project reviewPrepare final deliverables

Appoint project manager

Maintain communicationEvaluate change requests

Requirements Specification (Based on SRS)

Well-designed, well-written requirements accomplishes four major goals:

It provides FEEDBACK to the customer. Customer’s assurance that the team understands the issues or problems

to be solved Written in natural language, in an unambiguous manner that may also

include charts, tables, data flow diagrams, decision tables, etc.

It DECOMPOSES THE PROBLEM into component parts. places borders around the problem, solidifies ideas, and helps break

down the problem into its component parts in an orderly fashion.

It serves as an INPUT to the design specification. Serves as the parent document to subsequent documents. Contain sufficient detail so that a design solution can be devised.

It serves as a VALIDATION check. Serves as the parent document for testing and validation strategies.

Specification Task (10min)

Sort yourself into groups and complete the following

specifications and requirements.

Specifications: Create a picture with geometrical shapes

of various colours. The picture will have a red star, a blue circle and a

green triangle not overlapping two diagonal black lines crossing at

the centre.

Requirements:1. Diagonal lines 1.1 lines are black and straight 1.2 lines are drawn to intersect in the

centre of the page 1.3 First line is from the top left (below the

corner) to bottom right (above the corner) 1.4 Second line is from top right corner to

bottom right corner

2. Red star 2.1 Start is red and colour filled 2.2 Star is a six pointed star 2.3 Star is positioned on the upper right

section of the page 2.4 Star is small in size

3. Green triangle 3.1 Triangle is green bordered with no fill 3.2 Triangle is positioned on the top left

below the line from top left to bottom right 3.3 Triangle is large in size

4. Blue circle 4.1 Circle is blue with no fill 4.2 Circle is position at the bottom of the

page 4.3 Circle is not touching the black lines 4.4 Circle is medium in size

Draw the picture to the specification and requirements.

Specification Task: Discussion

Discuss any differences in the image and the specification. How does it differ? What specifications

needed to be added to make it an exact replica.

Question: What impact would

differences here have on the development of software?

Penny Queue Exercise: Waterfall and Agile

This simple simulation exercise helps people to understand the efficiency that can come from moving away from a waterfall or large batch process. The exercise can be done with 20 pennies, 5 people and a clock with a second hand.

The exercise simulates processing work in the form of flipping pennies from heads to tails and back. Four people in the Team sit at a table or other hard surface in a line beside each other. The surface must allow for easily sliding the pennies. The fifth person, the Manager, starts the process and times it.

First Pass - Waterfall Large Batch1. The Manager gives all the pennies to the first person in the

Team and notes the start time. The pennies should be in a big jumble.

2. The first Team member chooses a side (heads or tails) and flips all the pennies onto that side.

3. The person with the pennies passes the whole pile of pennies to the next person. That person then flips all the pennies to the other side.

4. Repeat step three until the last person on the Team has flipped them.

5. The manager notes how long this took.

Penny Queue Exercise: Waterfall and Agile II

Penny Queue Exercise: Waterfall and Agile III

Second Pass - Waterfall Small Batch1. The Manager gives all the pennies to the first person in the

Team and notes the start time. The pennies should be in a big jumble.

2. The first Team member chooses a side (heads or tails) and flips all the pennies onto that side. As each penny is flipped, the Team member passes it along to the next person.

3. Each person flips their pennies as quickly as possible and immediately passes them on to next person.

4. Do this until they are all flipped.

5. The manager notes how long it took for the first penny to go through all four Team members, and how long it took for all of them to finish.

Penny Queue Exercise: Waterfall and Agile IV

Third Pass - Parallel Small Batch1. All the pennies are in a random jumble in the middle of the

table.

2. One Team member calls heads or tails and the manager notes the start time.

3. Each person grabs a penny at a time from the pile.

4. All working at the same time as quickly as possible, each person flips the pennies first so they are all the same as the original call if needed, and then three more times

5. As each penny is finished 3 or 4 flips (as appropriate) it is pushed into a separate done pile in the middle of the table.

6. The Manager records the time for the first penny to be put into the done pile and for all of them to be completed.

Milestones

Project milestones are "how are we doing?" thresholds, indicating whether a project is on track to finish as expected, planned and required.

Specific milestones will vary by project, but in general, project milestones can be defined as the group of accomplishments, results, deliverables and events used to measure overall and specific project

progress.

Milestones II

Develop An Overall Model - goal is to identify and understand the fundamentals of the domain Build Features List,

grouping them into related sets and Subject areas.

Plan By Feature, the end result being a development, the identification of class owners and the identification of feature set owners.

Design By Feature, design feature

Build By Feature, complete client values function

The majority of the effort on an Feature Driven Development project, roughly 75%, is comprised of the Design By Feature and Build By Feature.

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Requirement 2

Requirement 3

Requirement 4

Requirement 5

Requirement 1

Requirement 6

Requirement 7

Requirement 8

Issue 1

ValidationTest

Milestone 1 Milestone 2

AGILE @ Work

And that’s it!

Any Questions????