Agile 101: an
introduction
07 December 2007

Sandy Mamoli & Brian Calhoun

Agile development and project
principles

what’s the problem?

what is agile?

what do the buzzwords mean?

what is it not?

when not to use it?

flavours: scrum & XP

conclusion

ready???

what’s the problem?

The writing is on the wall

two thirds of all projects
significantly over-run on cost

the average project exceeds its
schedule by 100%

64% of the features included are
rarely or never used

42% of requirements change
during the average project

how have we run projects so far?

requirements gathering

scare the crap out of them !!

consequences

** water

control in waterfall is an illusion

software development is not like
building a bridge

let’s accept reality:
software dev is unpredictable
don’t kill trees to manage risk
must deal with change
must have no surprises

what is agile?

simple framework with simple
principles

about people: the team

about people: the client

about business value

5 principles of agile

responding to change over
following a plan

working software over
comprehensive documentation

individuals and interactions over
processes and tools
Incomprehensible error
Something has gone wrong
Oh so very wrong
Don't Save Hello What?

customer collaboration over
contract negotiation

delivering the most valuable
features over delivering all or the
most sexy features

any surprises
so far?

what do the buzzwords mean?
terminology & scoping

“Agile” is a classification.
“Waterfall” is a classification.

Agile
- indviduals over processes
- working software over documentation
- customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- responding to change over following a plan
Methods
eXtreme
Programming DSDM
Scrum
Crystal
others...
FDD

what agile is NOT

NOT: a project methodology

NOT: a panacea

NOT: the only way

NOT: a reworded “code-and-fix”

NOT: an excuse to be lazy

NOT: an excuse to avoid
documentation

NOT: an excuse to avoid planning

When not to use agile?

possibly compliance situations?
“infinite” time/money, fixed
features

agile flavours

Small is beautiful
small cross-functional teams

access to client

product demonstrations

basic team values: honesty/
transparency

interim reviews & adaptation

eXtreme Programming (XP)

pair programming

“story cards” with small bits of
business functionality

tests! unit, system, acceptance
etc.
manual is fine

optimize last

scrum

conclusion

happy client

happy team

high quality

measuring success

Still alive? Any questions?

Thank you!
Sandy Mamoli
sandy@scrumpractitioner.com
Brian Calhoun
brian@silverstripe.com