Introduction to Agile Methods

What we do today

Does it work?
Lets find out
Its time to have a party!

It's Party Time!

Waterfall doesn't work well when
- There is a lot of uncertainty
- Requirements change midway

Waterfall doesn't work well when
- You or the customer are not 100%
sure of the market requirements

Waterfall doesn't work well when
- New ideas derive from using the
software

Two options
- Freeze requirements with upfront
research and analysis

Two options
- Freeze requirements with upfront
research and analysis
- Make the process adaptable

The market for software is complex
and ever changing
Agile methods derive from a theory
of Complex Adaptive Systems to
work in this environment

Traditional Timeline
- Wait till the end to use the software
- Feedback and bugs discovered late
- Poor visibility of progress

Agile Timeline
- Possible to incorporate feedback
- Bugs found early
- Start getting partial benefits early

Agile Timeline
- Better visibility of progress
- Better management of requirement
uncertainty

Agile Timeline
- Time is fixed
- Scope is a variable
- Keep software “releasable”

Frequent Delivery

Frequent Delivery
- Allows customers to view progress
- Customer can give feedback

Incremental Development
Image by Jeff Patton

Incremental Development
- Build a system piece by piece
- Better idea of development pace
- Allow parts of the system to be
deployed live
- Enable earlier return on
investment

Iterative Development
Image by Jeff Patton

Iterative Development
- Evolve features based on actual
usage
- Improves usefulness of the
product
- Enables deploy, test, refine cycle
in a live environment

Customer Collaboration

Customer Collaboration
- Not just building the product right,
but also building the right product
- Both parties are invested in a
successful outcome
- Collaboration vs confrontation

So what is Agile really?

Scrum, Extreme Programming, FDD,
Crystal, DSDM, Lean
t

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions
over processes and tools
Working software
over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation
Responding to change
over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the
items on the left more.

Benefits
- Improved RoI through early
deployment of software
- Build the right product through
incremental improvement

Benefits
- Better visibility into progress
- Catch problems early when you
have time to react

Further Questions
- How does Agile work in fixed price
projects?
- How to handle documentation?
- How to handle knowledge sharing?

Further Questions
- What happens to design?
- What happens to quality?
- Wont making many changes affect
the codebase?

Some Agile Practices To Explore
- Self organization
- Inspect & Adapt
- Burndown charts
- Test Driven Development
- Pair Programming
- Continuous Integration

Some Agile Practices To Explore
- Pull/Kanban
- Throughput analysis
- Work in progress limits
- Iceberg list
- Walking skeleton
- Information radiators

Some Agile Practices To Explore
- Domain object modeling
- Feature teams
- Parking lot diagrams
- Prototyping
- MoSCoW prioritisation
- Facilitated workshops

Thanks!
Siddharta Govindaraj
siddharta@silverstripesoftware.com