Agile 101 !!

I am sure by now there is enough interest and curiosity about Agile methodology. Experts are convinced that Agile is more of a software development methodology than a Project Management methodology. It's assumed that PMBOK, the ultimate word in any PM's world is applicable to only traditional waterfall methods.

Here is an interesting article from Project Management Institute (PMI) website,
Click here to go to the link


Click here to go to Wikipedia

Agile 101 !!

Diving further into more details, Agile methods break tasks into smaller chunks of stories that could be better managed. Normally, Agile groups work on a regular interval of time called Iterations. Depending on the project and the organizations, Iterations could vary between 2 to 4 weeks. We are currently on a 2 weeks iteration planning. The team size is smaller, so that everyone on the team is more focussed and is aware of all the things happening in the team. Basic idea is to plan the iteration in such a way that all the decided tasks can go through complete SDLC cycle of Analyzing, Designing, Coding, Unit and Acceptance testing. That's right, all of it in a single iteration and as you might have guessed, if the team successfully achieves that in an iteration, what you have at the end of the iteration is a release with no or minimal bugs. It might take more iterations to successfully add significant product launch. Add a few iterations like this and there is the final , ready to be launched product at the end... ! wow, isn't that awesome.....

Getting started

Agile implementation is one of the hot topics in Project Management world, if not the hottest. So what is the deal with it... In short and sweet terms, Agile PM means TEAM WORK and COLLABORATION. The most important aspect of any project utilizing Agile methodology is the final deliverable, i.e Software or the Product. and one really can't put enough emphasis on these keywords.

This is not to say that traditional Waterfall development method doesn't put the final deliverable ahead of all other things. Intention of any project, large or small is always to successfully meet the objective. It's just that, due to the way in which things are being done in traditional waterfall model, things get slowed down at certain stage of the game, resources get distracted and that leaves very little time to recover gracefully. That's the reason a significant percentage of the projects fail to meet it's objectives causing waste of a lot of money and time...


Sounds familiar huh, if you have witnessed something like this in your profession, you probably are wondering about being Agile !


-S