Comments on: Agile or Not Agile http://svprojectmanagement.com/agile-or-not-agile Project management wisdom from practictioners and the UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:47:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: John Scumniotales http://svprojectmanagement.com/agile-or-not-agile/comment-page-1#comment-6432 John Scumniotales Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:47:08 +0000 http://svprojectmanagement.com/?p=2743#comment-6432 Just a point of clarification and a few comments. In well-formed, functional agile teams, the product owner develops and prioritizes the backlog. A good product owner will always balance customer requirements with those of the business and the market. Also, agile teams that are working on delivering large pieces of functionality (hopefully, the exception, not the rule) should be driving those releases with both a release plan and release vision. Agile has grown up. In the early days (I was there), it was relegated to small co-located projects and teams. Today, agile practices and tools have matured and its being deployed in companies with many 100s (and some cases 1000s) of resources/projects. Regards, John Scumniotales http://www.twitter.com/jscumniotales http://agile.scumniotales.com http://www.serena.com/products/agile-software/ Just a point of clarification and a few comments. In well-formed, functional agile teams, the product owner develops and prioritizes the backlog. A good product owner will always balance customer requirements with those of the business and the market.

Also, agile teams that are working on delivering large pieces of functionality (hopefully, the exception, not the rule) should be driving those releases with both a release plan and release vision.

Agile has grown up. In the early days (I was there), it was relegated to small co-located projects and teams. Today, agile practices and tools have matured and its being deployed in companies with many 100s (and some cases 1000s) of resources/projects.

Regards,
John Scumniotales
http://www.twitter.com/jscumniotales
http://agile.scumniotales.com
http://www.serena.com/products/agile-software/

]]> By: Loyal Mealer http://svprojectmanagement.com/agile-or-not-agile/comment-page-1#comment-6243 Loyal Mealer Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:39:15 +0000 http://svprojectmanagement.com/?p=2743#comment-6243 I completely agree with Pradeep. You need a target product defined at least minimally to keep from straying off course. The biggest danger with a completely 'agile' approach where customer feedback determines direction is that highly vocal customers can take you away from your product vision and original purpose. Customers don't care what your business model is, they just want their ideas implemented so they can solve 'their' problems. It is very easy to lose sight of the big picture when you are sprinting your way to that next set of key features for that important customer. You need at least one strong visionary in a position of influence to keep this from happening, or you need great processes that force you to check new feature requests against the big picture. This is why guys like Steve Jobs are so important to a company. I completely agree with Pradeep. You need a target product defined at least minimally to keep from straying off course. The biggest danger with a completely ‘agile’ approach where customer feedback determines direction is that highly vocal customers can take you away from your product vision and original purpose. Customers don’t care what your business model is, they just want their ideas implemented so they can solve ‘their’ problems. It is very easy to lose sight of the big picture when you are sprinting your way to that next set of key features for that important customer. You need at least one strong visionary in a position of influence to keep this from happening, or you need great processes that force you to check new feature requests against the big picture. This is why guys like Steve Jobs are so important to a company.

]]> By: Pradeep Bhanot http://svprojectmanagement.com/agile-or-not-agile/comment-page-1#comment-6232 Pradeep Bhanot Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:04:32 +0000 http://svprojectmanagement.com/?p=2743#comment-6232 Hi Ed, two things stand out for me from your article. Firstly the incomplete requirements cannot be compensated for by a development methodology. Agile is better than waterfall in this situation, if you have a close involvement on a daily basis with the customer who can help you refine requirements as you go. The problem appears to be one of scope, which is why the project is overrunning but how do you estimate when you don’t have the whole picture? You are correct in mentioning that you do need a minimum level of requirements to refine before you begin. Hi Ed, two things stand out for me from your article. Firstly the incomplete requirements cannot be compensated for by a development methodology. Agile is better than waterfall in this situation, if you have a close involvement on a daily basis with the customer who can help you refine requirements as you go. The problem appears to be one of scope, which is why the project is overrunning but how do you estimate when you don’t have the whole picture? You are correct in mentioning that you do need a minimum level of requirements to refine before you begin.

]]> By: John Scumniotales http://svprojectmanagement.com/agile-or-not-agile/comment-page-1#comment-6183 John Scumniotales Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:20:52 +0000 http://svprojectmanagement.com/?p=2743#comment-6183 Hello Ed, I picked up this post indirectly through a tweet I received. It sounds like the program you discuss above is following some of the agile best practices (incremental development / sprints at least). But the thing to remember is that agile is a system of related activities. To get the hyper-productivity that is possible, you've to consider all of them. Check out my post at http://agile.scumniotales.com/2009/07/why-scrum-isnt-enough-for-agile-success-.html for more info. It also sounds like the "Product Owner" role is not being performed effectively (responsible for defining requirements / user stories and prioritizing the work for the team). You may want to consider an Agile Coach for the team. Depending on the scale of your project, the tool my team has built (which has a built-in coach!) may help as well. Best of Luck, John Scumniotales http://www.twitter.com/jscumniotales http://agile.scumniotales.com http://www.serena.com/products/agile-software/ Hello Ed,

I picked up this post indirectly through a tweet I received. It sounds like the program you discuss above is following some of the agile best practices (incremental development / sprints at least). But the thing to remember is that agile is a system of related activities. To get the hyper-productivity that is possible, you’ve to consider all of them. Check out my post at http://agile.scumniotales.com/2009/07/why-scrum-isnt-enough-for-agile-success-.html for more info.

It also sounds like the “Product Owner” role is not being performed effectively (responsible for defining requirements / user stories and prioritizing the work for the team).

You may want to consider an Agile Coach for the team. Depending on the scale of your project, the tool my team has built (which has a built-in coach!) may help as well.

Best of Luck,
John Scumniotales
http://www.twitter.com/jscumniotales
http://agile.scumniotales.com
http://www.serena.com/products/agile-software/

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