Discusses some of the issues involved in scaling agile methods for large systems engineering. Accompanies YouTube video atL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuK46hw3CyI

1. Scaling agile methods
Software Engineering 10

2. Agile methods have proved to be
successful for small and medium
sized projects that can be developed
by a small co-located team.

3. It is sometimes argued that the
success of these methods comes
because of improved
communications which is possible
when everyone is working together.

4. For large systems, different parts of
the system may be developed by
different teams. They may not all be
working in the same place or for the
same company.

5. Scaling up agile methods involves
changing these to cope with larger,
longer projects where there are
multiple development teams,
perhaps working in different
locations.

6. Agile fundamentals
Flexible planning, frequent system
releases, continuous integration,
test-driven development and good
team communications.

7. The informality of agile development
is incompatible with the legal
approach to contract definition that
is commonly used in large
companies.

8. Agile methods are most appropriate
for new software development rather
than software maintenance. Yet the
majority of software costs in large
companies come from maintaining
their existing software systems.

9. Agile methods are designed for small
co-located teams yet much software
development now involves
worldwide distributed teams.

10. Most software contracts for custom
systems are based around a
specification, which sets out what
has to be implemented by the system
developer for the system customer.

11. It is not therefore possible to
interleave specification and
development as recommended in
agile development.

12. A contract that pays for developer
time rather than functionality is seen
as a high risk by many legal
departments because what has to be
delivered cannot be guaranteed.

13. Are systems that are developed
using an agile approach
maintainable, given the emphasis in
the development process of
minimizing formal documentation?

14. Can agile methods be used
effectively for evolving a system in
response to customer change
requests?

15. If agile methods are to be successful,
they have to support maintenance as
well as original development.

16. Agile development relies on the
development team knowing and
understanding what has to be done.

17. For long-lifetime systems, this is a
real problem as the original
developers will not always work on
the system.

18. Scaling agile requires a mix of agile
and plan-based development.

19. Is it important to have a very detailed
specification and design before
moving to implementation? If so, you
probably need to use a plan-driven
approach.

20. Are customer representatives
available and willing to work closely
with the development team?

21. How large is the system that is being
developed? Agile methods minimise
documentation but documentation
may be essential for distributed
teams.

22. Agile and plan-based factors
Chapter 3 Agile Software 2230/10/2014

23. Agile methods are most effective a
relatively small co-located team who
can communicate informally.

24. Systems that require a lot of analysis
before implementation need a fairly
detailed design to carry out this
analysis.

25. Long-lifetime systems require
documentation to communicate the
intentions of the system developers
to the support team.

26. If a system is regulated you will
probably be required to produce
detailed documentation as part of the
system safety case.

27. It is sometimes argued that agile
methods require higher skill levels
than plan-based approaches in
which programmers simply translate
a detailed design into code.

28. Design documents may be required
if the team is distributed.

29. IDE support for collaborative work is
essential for distributed teams.

30. Can the organisation adapt to
different kinds of development
contract or does the contracts
department insist on
standardisation?

31. Does the culture support individual
initiative which is an inherent part of
agile development?

32. Do customers want incremental
delivery and involvement in the
process?