Managing Software Projects with Agile Processes

An Agile methodology is a collection of methods, procedures, and rules for developing software, providing guidance on choosing the methods and procedures to adapt to changes and improve how you work continuously.

Agile methodology, rather than providing directives on what to do, it gives certain values and agile principles based on which a team can decide on what they should do.

Agile is used in a software development project to achieve iterations of development and testing throughout the software development life-cycle. The development and testing go hand in hand in agile software development. In traditional software development project management, testing is performed after the development phase.

Agile Methodology

End user(s) teams with developers make instant decisions on user functionality. Agile teams prioritize and develop high-level requirements quickly to get a working product to the end user in increments of capabilities to accomplish a mission or fulfill a strategy. Multiple rapidly executed Increments are developed, and capabilities are released to the customer as soon as possible. Prototypes may be used as a starting place and utilize a modular, open-systems approach. Agile methods are typically used for small, low-risk projects.

An Agile methodology is the practice of continuous iteration of software development and testing, breaking the product into smaller builds.

Development and testing activities in an Agile methodology are concurrent encouraging teamwork and face-to-face communication. Business stakeholders, developers, and clients work together to develop a product.

What is the Agile Approach?

End user(s) team with developers to make rapid decisions on system functionality. Small teams prioritize and develop high-level requirements to get a working product quickly to the end user.

Multiple rapidly executed Increments are developed, and the resulting capabilities are released to the end user as soon as possible. Prototypes may be used as a starting place and utilize a modular, open-systems approach. Agile methods are typically used for small, low-risk projects.

Agile Project Management Framework [1]

There are five phases of the Agile Project Management Framework.

1. Envision: Determine product vision and scope, the project community, and how the team will work together.
2. Speculate: Develop a feature-based release, milestone, and iteration plan to deliver on the vision.
3. Explore: Deliver tested features in a short timeframe, constantly seeking to reduce the risk and uncertainty of the project.
4. Adapt: Review delivered results, the current situation, and the team’s performance and adapt as necessary.
5. Close: Conclude the project, document lessons for future improvement, and celebrate

Seven Stages of The Agile Roadmap [2]

• Stage 1 - the product owner identifies the product vision. The product vision defines the product, how it will support your company or organization’s strategy, and who will use it. On longer projects, revisit the product vision at least once a year.
• Stage 2 - the product owner creates the product roadmap as a high-level view of product requirements, with a loose time frame for when you will develop those requirements. Identifying product requirements and then prioritizing and roughly estimating the effort for those requirements is a large part of creating your product roadmap.
• Stage 3 - the product owner creates a release plan that identifies a high-level timetable for releasing working software. An agile project will have many releases, with the highest-priority features launching first. A typical release includes three to five sprints. A release plan is created at the beginning of each release.
• Stage 4 - the product owner, the master, and the development team plan sprints, also called iterations, and start creating the product within those sprints. Sprint planning sessions are performed at the start of each sprint, where the scrum team determines the requirements that will be in the upcoming iteration.
• Stage 5 - during each sprint, the development team has daily meetings. In the daily meeting, you spend at most 15 minutes discussing what you completed yesterday, what you will work on today, and any roadblocks you have.
• Stage 6 - the team holds a sprint review at the end of every sprint, demonstrating the working product created during the sprint to the product stakeholders.
• Stage 7 - the agile team holds a sprint retrospective to discuss how the sprint went and plans for improvements in the next sprint. Like the sprint review, you have a sprint retrospective at the end of every sprint.

Resources

1. AGILE AND EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT: A PROGRAM MANAGER’S DESK GUIDE , DAVID F. TERVONEN Deputy Director, Integrated Program Management Acquisition, Analytics and Policy, OUSD(A&S) AAP IPMD 17 November 2020.
2. Agile Acquisition & Project Management Defense Acquisition University
3. Acquisition and Management Concerns for Agile Use in Government Series , Software Engineering Institute