Agile Methodologies
Description: Written Assignments – Paper – Agile Methodologies. Write a report on the Agile movement.
-Describe the key principles of Agile.
-Explain its advantages as it applies to system analysis and design.
-Define Scrum and how to implement it.
Agile Methodologies
Agile methodology has increasingly been adopted in software development characterized by continuous iteration of development and testing to satisfy business/organizational solutions and needs. The agile methodologies offer a customized and effective software solution since requirements and solutions are made to evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The agile methodology being a project management process is directed towards responding to inadequacies associated with traditional development methods. The fact that software development is a highly competitive field, there is a need to adopt an elaborate and flexible methodology, thus accommodating changes and modifications. Agile methodology as a project development process is governed under different principles that ensure that software development operations’ full benefits are realized to meet organizations and individual software needs.
Principles of Agile methodologies
The successful operation and implementation of agile methodologies are highly dependent on the application of different principles. The principles of agile methodologies regulate individual and interactions over processes and tool working software over sufficient documentation, contract negotiations and customer collaboration and response to changes (Matharu et al., 2015). In this case, the first principle entails the satisfaction of customers. The satisfaction of customers is met through meeting their objectives, needs in a good time. The delivery of projects to customers needs to be early and continuous while maintaining high work quality.
Agile methodology effective implementation is the dependent principle of breaking big work into small manageable tasks that can be completed. The software development projects can be large, but they can be simplified into smaller tasks (Matharu et al., 2015). The breaking down of work enhances the completion of work in parts such that work is implemented effectively and efficiently.
The principle of self-organized teams ensures that parties tasked with implementing the project are effectively prepared to take different roles and responsibilities in the best way (Matharu et al., 2015). The self-organized teams can coordinate and cooperate in the different tasks within the implementation of the project. This approach ensures that projects are effectively implemented to meet their different goals.
The agile methodology becomes effective in the principle of processes in the implementation of the project. The project needs to be implemented in a sustainable process towards completing the whole project (Wadhwa and Sharma, 2015). Implementing a project in processes ensures that the goals and results of the project are realized consistently and gradually.
Maintaining a constant pace in implementing a project needs to be maintained, thus assuring the parties involved that the project will be completed in good time. Constant pace ensures that the project is consistently implemented in the realization of the set goals and objectives.
The principle of welcoming the changing requirement needs to be incorporated into the project to ensure that changes can be allowed in the project to meet the desired goals and objectives (Wadhwa and Sharma, 2015). Projects are planned before their implementation by changing in the environment, or other aspects within the project inclines the methodology to adopt the changes, thus ensuring that the projected goals are attained.
The principle of continually seeking excellence needs to be implemented to ensure projects, software and solutions are effectively updated with the existing innovations and technologies (Wadhwa and Sharma, 2015). The technologies and innovations keep changing and arising, and thus the existing projects need to be updated to ensure that they meet the goals effectively and efficiently.
Additionally, the principle of harnessing change needs to be incorporated into the projects for competitive advantage gains (Wadhwa and Sharma, 2015). Organizations and individuals are constantly involved in adopting new technologies and innovations to have a competitive advantage in the market. In this regard, the project needs to have the adaptability to harness the change, thus ensuring the projects are continually improved.
Advantage of agile methodologies to system analysis and design
Agile methodologies have a wide range of benefits in the successful implementation and management of projects. The different benefits compel people to consider agile methodologies in implementing different projects (Kaur and Anuj, 2015). In this case, agile methodology benefits include that the project has the aspect of stakeholder engagement to ensure all parties’ needs. The clients are involved in the project, thus attaining a high collaboration between the project team and the client.
The agile methodology ensures that a great sense of transparency is incorporated into the project in the interest of all parties involved in the project (Kaur and Anuj, 2015). The project ensures that the clients or any party to the project are involved throughout the project while prioritizing features to iteration planning and session review, thus ensuring that they are part of the project. This approach ensures that clients participate sufficiently in the project.
The agile methodology provides a predictable cost and schedule to ensure that planning and budgeting are done well in advance (Kaur and Anuj, 2015). The agile methodologies ensure effective estimates of duration, cost, labor, and materials to be used in the project. The predictable costs and schedules enable the client and the project teams to make decisions in regard to the project.
The agile methodologies ensure that the solutions and products’ quality is effectively improved to meet the desired goals and objectives. The project is broken down into manageable units, ensuring high-quality development, testing, and collaboration, thus attaining the project’s desired quality (Fustik, 2017). The agile methodology ensures that projects are completed in time while meeting a high client/customer satisfaction level. Moreover, the agile approach ensures that common pitfalls in the aspects of the scope creep, schedule and costs are handled before they negatively affect the project.
Scrum and its implementation
Scrums and an agile project management approach is designed for software development to deliver innovative new software capability regularly. The Scum project management incorporates principles and values that guide decision making inclined to delivering high-quality software (Permana, 2015). Scrum addresses the complexity involved in implementing projects by enhancing transparency, eliminating pitfalls, and detecting variances through regular inspections.
The effective implementation of scrum enables the organization to experience a wide range of advantages: high productivity, better quality products, improved stakeholder satisfaction and improved project team dynamics.
Scrum is implemented in stages and processes for the product (software) development. The first stage entails the backlog creation to the point and includes features that should be implemented in the development process (Permana, 2015). This stage captures the features and requirements to be incorporated into the software. Consequently, sprint planning and sprint backlog creation ensure that work versions of the product are frequently presented. Furthermore, there is working on the sprint stage, where scrum meetings are conducted to define the work process and operations. Moreover, there is product testing and demonstration to test the project’s operation and demonstrate it to the client or the stakeholders. Lastly, the retrospective and next sprint planning stages discuss and establish the aim and result in the project development process. This stage evaluates the level at which the project goals and objectives have been achieved.
Conclusion
The agile project methodologies ensure that software development projects are consistently implemented without the challenge experienced in other projects. This project approach ensures that project goals are effectively attained in time with a high degree of quality.
The methodologies are implemented in stages where scrum methodology ensures that software with the desired features is developed.
References
Fustik, V. (2017). The Advantages of Agile Methodologies Applied in the ICT Development Projects. International Journal on Inform. Technologies & Security, (4).
Kaur, K., & Jajoo, A. (2015, February). Applying agile methodologies in industry projects: Benefits and challenges. In 2015 International Conference on Computing Communication Control and Automation (pp. 832-836). IEEE.
Matharu, G. S., Mishra, A., Singh, H., & Upadhyay, P. (2015). Empirical study of agile software development methodologies: A comparative analysis. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 40(1), 1-6.
Permana, P. A. G. (2015). Scrum method implementation in a software development project management. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 6(9), 198-204.
Wadhwa, M., & Sharma, N. (2015). Review of agile software development methodologies. Advances in Computer Science and Information Technology, 2(4), 370-374.
