Thursday, April 17, 2008
A point of View about Agile
Agile development/project management is excellent for small teams or when big team divided into small teams so that each team is loosely bounded with each other. Agile development/management is all about the energetic, self driven teams with good communication within and outside team.
An excellent mentor is quintessential for each agile team. He should be responsible for creating a good team dynamic. Agile team is a relatively experienced team and under circumstances the team could be a gang of excepts if cost is not a concern for the client. Managing ego of such a team could serious trouble. Starting an agile development project with relatively inexperienced team is not at all advisable. So a favourable mix of team will be required and the senior members of the team should be ready to play good mentors. Each less experienced member should be mentored by a senior and experienced team member. This has an inherent advantage. The learning curve of new team member will be better and in long run the team is expected to be very productive. One needs to be very careful while selecting the team. It’s advised to understand the psychological profile of the team member before inducting him/her in the team. Some people prefer to work alone. So the individuals work style should be respected.
Organization’s participation is very much necessary for going agile. The organization should strive to satisfy the individual as happy individuals are productive individuals. The organization should give more stress on recognizing team success over individual’s success (but not overriding individual’s success). The issues like promotions and recognitions should be dealt very cautiously.
These were the few concerns. Now let’s look at the brighter side of the agile world. Agile provides a good ROI to the client. The client is closely involved in the development process so the goof-ups could be avoided. The maximum loss could be of one iteration and the client can revisit their decisions. The requirement changes are welcomed at logical points. For the team members, it’s a high learning curve. Organizations get a change to develop good collaborative development model to suite both their style. The organizations develop good mentors and that’s a bonus.
Word of caution: It’s recommended that the agile development/management should be adopted in phases observing how the team reacts to the changes, especially when the team does not have exposure to agile. Never force Agile on customer or the team if they are not ready. Tailor agility depending on the needs of project and not for adopting Agile practices.
An excellent mentor is quintessential for each agile team. He should be responsible for creating a good team dynamic. Agile team is a relatively experienced team and under circumstances the team could be a gang of excepts if cost is not a concern for the client. Managing ego of such a team could serious trouble. Starting an agile development project with relatively inexperienced team is not at all advisable. So a favourable mix of team will be required and the senior members of the team should be ready to play good mentors. Each less experienced member should be mentored by a senior and experienced team member. This has an inherent advantage. The learning curve of new team member will be better and in long run the team is expected to be very productive. One needs to be very careful while selecting the team. It’s advised to understand the psychological profile of the team member before inducting him/her in the team. Some people prefer to work alone. So the individuals work style should be respected.
Organization’s participation is very much necessary for going agile. The organization should strive to satisfy the individual as happy individuals are productive individuals. The organization should give more stress on recognizing team success over individual’s success (but not overriding individual’s success). The issues like promotions and recognitions should be dealt very cautiously.
These were the few concerns. Now let’s look at the brighter side of the agile world. Agile provides a good ROI to the client. The client is closely involved in the development process so the goof-ups could be avoided. The maximum loss could be of one iteration and the client can revisit their decisions. The requirement changes are welcomed at logical points. For the team members, it’s a high learning curve. Organizations get a change to develop good collaborative development model to suite both their style. The organizations develop good mentors and that’s a bonus.
Word of caution: It’s recommended that the agile development/management should be adopted in phases observing how the team reacts to the changes, especially when the team does not have exposure to agile. Never force Agile on customer or the team if they are not ready. Tailor agility depending on the needs of project and not for adopting Agile practices.
Labels: Agile, Project Management, Scrum, Software Development, XP
# posted by Sumant Kumar Raja (SK) : 1:08 AM
