Agile and Iterative Software Methodologies for Developing a Customer Relationship Management Application

This report examines and recommends the relevance of agile and iterative software methodologies to be used in developing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. It discusses what the methodologies entail and the processes that will be taken during the development of the system and gives the advantages and disadvantages of each.

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Introduction
System development techniques is a way of specifying the activities to be done and the
manner in which these activities are to follow each other. For successful completion of systems,
these techniques must be used in a proper and efficient manner (Royce, 1987). This report will
examine and give a recommendation to the Australia Fashion and Design management the
relevance of agile and iterative software methodologies to be used in developing a Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) application. The methodologies to be discussed i.e. agile and
iterative methodologies, will provide enough insight to the management of CRM the best manner
in which the application is to be built, with minimum resources to be incurred and also saving on
costs and time. It will discuss what the methodologies entails and the processes that will be taken
during the development of the system and give the advantages and disadvantages of each. It will
discuss in details how these methodologies will take into account the requirements of the CRM
application as well as meeting the needs of the users.
The agile methodology makes use of agile teams that work directly with customer’s in
order to appreciate the objectives and give a result without much delay and in an incremental
manner (Cockburn, 2002). Major problem in software development is the changing technology.
Agile methodology takes into consideration the rapid change versus the hunt for complete, rigid
specifications (Wells, 2002). Unlike traditional development methods, where they relied mostly
on phases, the agile methodology unveils the first cycle after some weeks and the whole piece of
software in a number of months after.
The iterative methodology on the other hand uses a complete different path as compared
to agile methodology. In this method the software is developed through recurrent cycles and in
lesser portions at a time (Basil et al. 1975). At each iteration, design alterations are made and
new functional abilities are added. It has four phases namely, the requirement phase whereby the
requirements of the software are collected and examined, the design phase in which a software is
designed to achieve its objectives, an implementation and testing phase and finalizing with a
review phase (Royce, 1987).

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Methodology 1: Scrum
It is a framework that assists people can solve intricate problems while delivering products of
high value creatively (Schwaber et al. 2002). Since the AFD management will always present
new views on how they want the application to be, there will be unpredictable problems
therefore, scrum adopts an evidence based empirical approach, this is to make sure that a team’s
efforts to convey swiftly is maximized, reply to developing requirements, and to familiarize with
changing technologies and fluctuations in market conditions. During the development of CRM
scrum will consist of the following interlocking steps and components:
 Product backlog creation
These are the requirements of the CRM system. Here the requirements are to be ordered
by priority and each requirement must get a unique ID. For example, a requirement such
as, for every retail store to become a customer of AFD, they must fill in an application is
given an ID a-001.
 Sprint planning and sprint backlog creation
In this step it is recommended the management and the development team to cooperate. It
should determine the most important user story (requirement) and the scrum team defines
the appropriate labor cost. A sprint duration of 2 weeks is defined and it allows the team
to issue an operational form of the product more often. Customer feedback will be
obtained frequently and all likely faults will be revealed earlier.
 Working on the sprint: sprint meetings
The team completes their sprint backlog task, assess the progress and address roadblocks
in a daily scrum.
 Tests and demonstration
The outcome of each and every sprint is known as product demonstration. The Scrum
team comes up with an analysis and presents the outcomes of their work. Based on the
outcomes stakeholders decides about other changes that might occur to the project.
 The team completes the sprint with a review and begin a fresh sprint until the application
is complete.
Advantages of Scrum

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i. Increased return on investment- there is regular feedbacks directly from the
management which enables early corrections during sprint reviews which is less
costly.
ii. Improved customer satisfaction- the CRM is delivered faster to the management.
The management is also involved and engaged throughout the development
process.
iii. Increases team morale- use of teams enable members to be creative, innovative
and acknowledged for their expertise.
Disadvantages of Scrum
i. It is only effective for small projects but no for large projects.
ii. There can be delays if there are inexperienced members of the scrum team.
iii. There is a high reliance on the efficiency of the team members.
Methodology 2: Extreme Programming (XP)
In this methodology short and frequent parts of the system under development are
released. The customer is involved during unit testing and reviewing the code. (Beck, Gamma
2000). In the CRM system, the team will build a list of requirements from the management, then
build a software release plan. The software will be deployed in cycles also known as iterations
after every number of weeks from the beginning of the system. The team will work in a group of
two and hold meeting from day to day in order to remove any challenges. The management will
give response if more requirements will be needed. This process continues until the software is
completed.
Advantages
i. Cost reduction - costs increases as the software advances in it life cycle. Extreme
programming makes amends at the development stage hence less costs are involved.
ii. It copes up well in changing technology. When requirements change, extreme
programming in-builds accommodation through getting proper requirements at the
beginning of the iterations, results from the management at the rest of the iterations.

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iii. Employee satisfaction – the breakdown of project scope into subcomponents and the
constant customer feedback prevented buildup of much work to be finalized over a tight
deadline(Beck, Fowler 2001)
Disadvantages
i. User involvement in extreme programming is minimal and the success of the application
will depend data that will be collected at every stage of the development process since the
management might not be much involved or even dislike the involvement.
ii. It focusses on code rather than design. A good design is important since it helps in user
interaction.
Methodology 3: Lean Software Development
It main focuses on doing thing s at the right time to save on time and deliver products
quickly. This improves productivity, lowers cost and improve quality. Lean incorporates
Deming’s belief that the system within which people work is as significant as the people. It also
focusses on experienced people to build great systems and yield great results. In order for the
CRM to be delivered quickly, Lean suggests that; the most valuable work must be done, the team
should avoid building what is not needed, create collaboration within the team by giving them
work in a manner that allows them to work together, ensure the workflow is in order, create
architectures that will not need to change by use of design patterns, refactoring etc., and finally
manage workflow so that actions are load balanced.
Advantages
 Increased efficiency due to elimination of waste as a result this speeds up the process of
software development.
 Improves the decision making ability of the team improving their motivation.
 Because the application is delivered early then it means the development team can deliver
more functionality within a short period of time pleasing the management and also
customers.

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Disadvantages
 Since lean allows requirements to evolve hence high flexibility meaning that the
development team will lose sight of their original objectives and create an application
that never ends.
 The development will depend mostly on how unified the team is and individual
commitments.
Methodology 4: Feature Driven Development (FDD)
This is a methodology that insists on fast development cycles and assists the businesses with
systems of a greater quality because they are developing at a constant rate (Palmer, Felsing
2001). In the development of the CRM five processes would have to be undertaken:
i. An overall model will be developed. Models in a specific domain will be created by small
groups and are then to be presented to the management for reviewing. The models are
then to be combined to produce an overall model.
ii. Generates a features list that will include all the requirements which will be used to create
the CRM. A features list is provided by disintegrating domains into subject areas that
contain any material that relates to business activities.
iii. Once the features list is complete, this process will involve assigning the various features
to the programmers.
iv. The chief programmer should then select the most important features that are to be
developed in two weeks’ time and also come up with summarized diagrams for each
feature while reducing errors on the model.
v. Once the design reviews are over, the designers put in place an activity for every feature
and starts working on the code for their individual classes. Unit testing is carried out and
the features taken to the main build.

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Advantages
 It allows the programmer to apply methods to manage projects at a lower level and allow
other methodologies at a lower level.
 It places attention on the individual engineering practices with lengthy feedback cycles
and with a feature team that takes clearly recognizable duties.
 The method is highly effective in that it provides solutions to problems that commonly
conflict programmers.
Disadvantages
 Iterations are not well defined as other agile methodologies.
 There is no team ownership since only individual code ownership is promoted.

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Recommendation
Agile methodologies is the top candidate for the development of the CRM. According to
(Bauer 2005) most of the projects that were cultured conferring to the methodology of Feature
Driven Development were successive. Bauer experience reveals that Feature Driven
Development had a constructive effect since bringing everybody together made their teams more
alert to the project that was put in place using FDD. It provided solutions to software
development problems, constant delays, excessive waste of money and exerting minimum
emphasis to the work needed to complete the project. With FDD, clarification are clear from the
plan. The minimized risk was restrained based on the iteration of design and build approach;
precision of objectives and good comprehension of building the system.
References

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Basil, V.R. and Turner, A.J., 1975. Iterative enhancement: A practical technique for software
development. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, (4), pp.390-396.
Beck, K. and Fowler, M., 2001. Planning extreme programming. Addison-Wesley Professional.
Beck, K. and Gamma, E., 2000. Extreme programming explained: embrace change. Addison-
wesley professional.
Cockburn, A., 2002. Agile software development (Vol. 177). Boston: Addison-Wesley.
Don Wells 2002, Software Development: A gentle Introduction. Available from:
http://www.agile-process.org
Palmer, S.R. and Felsing, M., 2001. A practical guide to feature-driven development. Pearson
Education.
Royce, Winston W. "Managing the development of large software systems: concepts and
techniques." In Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Software Engineering, pp.
328-338. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1987.
Schwaber, K. and Beedle, M., 2002. Agile software development with Scrum (Vol. 1). Upper
Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Appendix

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MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
CC:
Date:
SUBJECT: Customer Relationship Management App
User interface is an important approach to the development of system products today. It is a
means through which the user is connected to the software or system. A good interface is the one
that enables users realize their goals faster and in an accurate manner. This leads to user
satisfaction. User experience is connected to a wide category that dive pleasant involvements
through the entire period the user is using a product, system, service or an object. However, Bad
user interface may bring issues such as users rejecting the system, frustrations and issues to do
with maintenance of the software also arise.
The most important method to realize user experience is through User centered design (UCD)
and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). User Centered Design (UCD) is a user interface design
manner that focusses specifically on making systems usable. During the development of the
Customer Relationship Management application, it is of great importance to adopt the UCD
since the users are new to the system and do not know how to use the system. The system,
should therefore, be developed in accordance with the following principles:
 Design for the users and their needs
 Build a consistent design
 Build a continuous communication between the design and the user.
 Create an environment that will not make the user think too much.
 Minimize errors and let users achieve their target needs.
According to the association for Computing Machinery, Human Computer Interface (HCI) is
deals with designing, evaluating and implementing interactive input systems for human usage
and the study of the major phenomena around them. In other words, HCI has been described as

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the way humans cooperate with computers. The CRM should be guided by the following HCI
principles while developing the application:
 The developers should establish a means by which the user is to perform the tasks.
 Conduct an initial test involving the interface and the users who come into interaction
with the interface daily.
 Conduct an iterative design: model the user Interface, do various test, examine outcomes
do a repetition of the iterative process until the interface is created.
Implications of the UCD principles on CRM application
 By specifying the context of use the user will gain knowledge as to who will use the
product, what is the application is going to be used for and under what condition will the
application be used.
 Users of the system will get quicker feedback.
 Early involvement with the user in the design will help create ownership of the product
and reduce future costs.
 The CRM will have an easier platform where customers will complete their task without
any errors.
 A good UCD will help reduce the amount of time the management and users will be
dealing with the software.
Planning for a UCD-informed for the CRM application
The following should be the minimum requirements to be involve in the development of the
CRM system regarding UCD and HCI:
 The arrangement of controls, menus, button should be in order i.e. buttons that
perform similar task should be grouped together.
 The use of graphics must be included in the system. This will make the
application become interactive.
 The application should be customized in a way that uses different languages to
suit a user.

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 The ability to receive data in many forms e.g. through printed form, voice, finger
print etc. should also be in consideration since this is a business oriented
application.
 Should be usable to people regardless of their cultural backgrounds, physical
ability, religion etc.
 The CRM system should include strict security measures in order to safeguard the
organization.
Recommendation.

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Computer systems such as CRM system should be developed in a way that they achieve
the needs and capabilities of the users. UCD aids to determine the degree to which the
system will be usable. A good interface design catches the eye of the user and enables
him/her use the system more. Due to the emerging trends in technology, there is an
improved demand for fast and user friendly interfaces which not only fulfil the
requirements of diverse kind users but also give them satisfaction with effectiveness. The
CRM system user interface should therefore be developed using these frameworks