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Problems Encountered When Implementing
Agile Methods in a Very Small Company
Michael J. O‘Donnell, Ita Richardson
EUROSPI 2008, Conference Session, Ireland, September 2008

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Rationale for Research
 Frederick Brooks (1987) & “No Silver Bullet”
 Reduce Costs, Improve Quality
 The Latest Contender – Agile Methods
 Mikael Lindvall et al.
 Overall Objective
 Examine Agile methods in a small company
 An Irish Perspective

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Why Agile Methods?
 Current Goal of Software Development
 Rapidly changing requirements
 Restricting software development
 Probability of repeat business
 “Traditional” V. “Agile”
 Supporting Arguments (Shire & Griffith)
 Counter Arguments (Rakitin & Paulk)

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Research Methodology
 Objective of the research & Research Method Chosen
 Techniques employed
 Observation
 Interviews
 Informal Conversations
 System Documentation

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Research Methodology
 Other techniques employed
 SWOT Analysis
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats
 PESTEL
- Political, Economical, Social, Technical, Environmental, &
Legal
 Caveat

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Company Profile
 Small Irish company in a remote location
 Mixture of Microsoft & Open Source Technologies
 ISO 9001:2000 certification
 Enhanced Quality Management System
 GAMP
- Good Automated Manufacturing Practices
 IEEE Standard 829-1998 & BS7925-2 (Testing)

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eXtreme Programming (XP)
 What is XP
 Increase Productivity & Ensure same Level of Quality
 12 Practices & 3 Key Concepts
 Customer Satisfaction
 Software Quality
 Project Management
 Key Selling Points

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Problems Encountered
&
Benefits Derived

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Problems Encountered
 Pair Programming
 Introduction
 What are the reported benefits?
- Quality & Reliability (Williams et al.)
 What problems were encountered with the implementation?
- Limited number of participants & suitability evaluations
- Rotation of roles
- Size of work area

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Problems Encountered
 Forty Hour Week
 Introduction
 What are the reported benefits?
- Motivated workforce
 What problems were encountered with the implementation?
- Pre-existing agreements & Family commitments
 What was the end result?
- Morale among developers

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Problems Encountered
 Long term Maintenance & Documentation
 Introduction
 What are the reported benefits?
- Design speaks louder than Documentation
- Hiding problems and flaws
 What problems were encountered with the implementation?
- Lack of protective cover
 What was the end result?

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Problems Encountered
 Rapidly Changing Requirements
 Introduction
 What are the reported benefits?
- Meets the actual needs of the customer
 What problems were encountered with the implementation?
- Injection & Re-prioritise requirements
 What was the end result?
- Compromised Quality

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Problems Encountered
 Collective Code Ownership
 Introduction
 What are the reported benefits?
- Flexibility
 What problems were encountered with the implementation?
- Cold War type mentality
 What was the end result?

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Problems Encountered
 Lack of Insulation
 Introduction
 What are the reported benefits?
- Clarification of requirements
 What problems were encountered with the implementation?
- Failure to insulate developers
 What was the end result?
- Project Manager

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Summary of Problems
 Size of Software Development Group.
 Allocation of Responsibility.
 Documentation.
 Management Support/Buy-in.
 Existing Agreements.

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Benefits Derived
 Upgrading Junior Staff Skills
 Introduction
 What was the short-term benefit?
- Eliminates bad practices
 What was the long-term benefit?
- Higher quality code

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Benefits Derived
 Pushes Developers to rapidly adapt to new
environments and challenges
 Introduction
 What was the short-term benefit?
- Flexible workforce
 What was the long-term benefit?
- Employment Opportunities

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Conclusion
 Project Outcome in this case
 Need for detailed planning
 How we are going to implement the process
 Identify most relevant elements
 Extensive management support
 Consider pre-existing arrangements
 Control environment

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Thank You
This research was partially supported by the Science Foundation Ireland funded
project, Global Software Development in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (GSD
for SMEs) grant number 03/IN3/1408C within Lero - the Irish Software Engineering
Research Centre (http://www.lero.ie). and by the Higher Education Authority through
the M.S.c. In Software Engineering, University of Limerick

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And Finally …
Questions?