This paper outlines an adaptation of Agile development based on a pilot project at the Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC), a mid-sized non-profit corporation in the student loan guarantor industry. To support the re-engineering of mission-critical loan management applications, ECMC needed to modify Agile development methods to incorporate up-front project estimates to gain funding approval. IT also needed to redefine the traditional working relationship with its business partners to eliminate the traditional tension over project scope. What resulted is a Hybrid-Agile solution that incorporates the flexibility of iterative development with traditional project estimation techniques, while accommodating the end user's need for on-going scope changes.
When you think of a highly regulated, very large company like Lockheed Martin, you would not tend to think of Agile development projects. Lockheed Martin is a Fortune 500 company that consists of four business areas, has 140,000 employees, is located in 45 states in 457 cities, and has 939 facilities in the United States alone. Internationally, Lockheed Martin is present in 56 nations and territories. The implementation of Agile practices at Lockheed Martin was not a case of finding Agile and seeing how it could fit, but looking for a better way to develop software-centric products and finding Agile.
When the Douglas
County CO Government IT Department was asked to create a custom application for
the Sheriff's Office to track and manage the County's resident convicted sex
offenders, the project estimates using the traditional waterfall-based
methodology proved too long and too costly to gain approval from its IT
Steering Committee. Rather than cancel
the project or purchase a less optimal off-the-shelf product, we implemented it
as our first Agile/Scrum project. The
outcome was a very successful system implementation delivered in four months -
less than half the original schedule estimate.
But the journey was equally rewarding, and taught us that "Agile" meant
more than just a change to the project management methodology. For us, it meant changing almost everything.
Delivering working software against all odds by using tools, metrics, and guerilla XP tactics
The project that StarSoft Labs implemented for a large multinational telecom company in Europe has been one of the most challenging, unconventional, and rewarding XP exercises for us so far. All development and testing was done 100% offshore in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the remote customer. We built an Intranet resource and project management application. Now, 30 months later, the system has 1500 users across four countries. The offshore XP team has grown from three to 17 and has delivered 18 versions of the system into production. One of the major achievements was bringing the defect rate down while keeping good velocity and implementing changes rapidly.
State of Ohio Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS)
Agile development continues to gain traction in enterprise IT organizations, but myths and misconceptions slow the pace of acceptance and preclude the use of Agile methods in situations where they could otherwise add significant value. Part of the issue is the simplicity of its philosophy as stated in the Agile Manifesto, which leaves plenty of room for (mis)interpretation and leads to myths such as Agile is anti-documentation. Other myths arise from misunderstandings of common Agile practices. Executives, managers and practitioners familiar with traditional waterfall and RAD approaches are shocked to discover that cherished metrics and practices don't apply on Agile projects, leading to mistaken assumptions about the lack or inadequacy of project management, requirement management, quality assurance and other key project controls. Agile purists complete the picture through dogmatic pronouncements of what is and isn't truly Agile. This article uses experiences from a highly successful large development project to debunk four common myths: Agile projects don't control scope, Agile projects are difficult to manage, Agile approaches don't scale, and Agile methods are just for programmers.
Sure, Agile development works well for small teams. But what happens when you apply Agile practices to a program that involves 300-plus developers and testers spread from India to Houston to Israel? In less than one year, with the help of coaching services and Agile lifecycle management tools, BMC Software's Distributed Systems Management (DSM) group transformed its development organization. BMC used Agile development practices to deliver a major product to the market in less time and with higher quality than previously possible.
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is the world's leading gaming entertainment company, currently poised for continued expansion and growth. Its Enterprise IT team is also poised for continued success by virtue of an aggressive foray into Agile software development methods. Harrah's IT desires to provide an Agile alternative to traditional waterfall projects where it makes sense based on predetermined criteria.
This article describes the challenges in managing Harrah's first Agile pilot project - code-named "Slot Marketing" for this article.
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