Agile Processes and SCRUM Agile Development Methodology

This paper discusses the agile processes and SCRUM framework and tries to provide detailed arguments for why adopting this methodology for the purpose of internal system development and contracted system development is beneficial for Southern Cross University. Apart from its benefit in the project development, this paper also discusses about what sort of projects may not be benefited at all by adopting this framework and what sort of projects must avoid it from adopting. Also in this paper we discusses about another agile framework XP that could be adopted as an alternate to SCRUM methodology.

ASSIGNMENT-2, PART 1
Agile Processes
SCRUM Agile Development Methodology

Executive Summary
The system development environment today experiences a number of innovations frequently and
so does the product. While a product is being developed, diversification in the business demand
can result in interminable headaches for the development teams. SCRUM Agile methodology is
believed to be a solution to address all these concerns. SCRUM makes certain transparency in
communication and ensures surroundings continually progressing.
This paper discusses the agile processes and SCRUM framework and tries to provide detailed
arguments for why adopting this methodology for the purpose of internal system development
and contracted system development is beneficial for Southern Cross University.
Apart from its benefit in the project development, this paper also discusses about what sort of
projects may not be benefited at all by adopting this framework and what sort of projects must
avoid it from adopting. Also in this paper we discusses about another agile framework XP that
could be adopted as an alternate to SCRUM methodology.
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Table of Contents
Introduction to Agile Processes.......................................................................................................3
Agile Values................................................................................................................................3
Agile Principles...........................................................................................................................3
SCRUM Framework........................................................................................................................4
Sprint Planning............................................................................................................................5
Daily Review:..............................................................................................................................5
Sprint Review meeting................................................................................................................5
Sprint Retrospective meeting.......................................................................................................5
WHY SCRUM?...............................................................................................................................5
Different Projects using SCRUM....................................................................................................6
Aspects of Agile Methodology......................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction to Agile Processes
The Agile Methodology was developed in early years of 21st century to help individuals and
groups for the purpose of better interactions over developments and tools (Ambler, 2012). Agile
Software Manifesto is made up of a set of values and principles which describes what exactly
agile methodology is (Ambler, 2012).
Agile Values
 Adopting Interactions amongst individuals over tools and processes
 Choosing Working Software instead of completing documentation
 Collaboration with customer rather than negotiating over contract and,
 Instead of traditionally following a set up plan, adopting to respond to change.
Agile Principles
 Customer’s satisfaction with the software and delivery time is the highest priority
 Even if customer demands changes at a later stage of development, it can be
accommodated with ease.
 Instead of delivering complete software at once, in agile a working software is delivered
at short span of intervals with every time something added features to it
 Developer’s team works in collaboration with Business Analyst on daily basis and
ensures face-to-face conversations.
 Promotes sustainable development. Simultaneous work available for users, developers
and sponsors.
Agile methodology is supported with the help of many frameworks such as Behavior Driven
Development (BDD), Agile Unified Process, Lean Development, SCRUM framework and
many others. SCRUM is considered simple and a complete methodology for the purpose of
managing product development (Highsmith, 2015). This document aims to explain SCRUM
framework in order to adopt it as the internal system development at Southern Cross
University.
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SCRUM Framework
SCRUM framework has the capability to employ multiple techniques and methods instead of one
method and technique for the development of product software (Highsmith, 2015). The tasks in a
SCRUM framework are team based and explain rules, artifacts, events and associated roles.
There are three teams that have major roles within this methodology which are:
 The owner of the product who is responsible for representing the stakeholders.
 Business Analyst or SCRUM master who is responsible for managing the development
team and entire process of SCRUM
 Development team who in actual will work upon developing the actual software.
The delivery of every project is made in terms of small iterations which are highly flexible and
complete in them (Paetsch, Eberlein and Maurer, 2013). Iteration is delivered at the end of every
sprint in a tangible manner. The below figure explains SCRUM framework
Project backlog is maintained to keep a record of project requirements and is updated on regular
basis (Paetsch et al., 2013). User Stories is a feature that is associated with project backlog.
Depending upon the user stories and work complexity business analyst and development team
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design work divided into 1 to 4 cycles on the basis of descending priority order which is
achievable per cycle. This acts as the subset of user stories and maintained by iteration backlog
that has been planned for iteration delivery in 2 weeks period (Paetsch et al., 2013).
The meetings involved under SCRUM framework development process are:
Sprint Planning: Project Scope, user stories and similar other issues are discussed in this
meeting. Plan is developed for iteration delivery along with acceptance criteria (Jacobsen,
Christerson, Jonsson and Overgaard, 2014).
Daily Review: To determine the current progress of product development and testing phase.
Problems and risks associated with testing and development are made clear (Jacobsen et al.,
2014).
Sprint Review meeting: After a sprint ends, deliverables are presented to customers and
further product is developed depending on mutual agreement (Jacobsen et al., 2014).
Sprint Retrospective meeting: To discuss the accomplishments and to discuss what went
wrong and how it can be improved (Jacobsen et al., 2014).
WHY SCRUM?
SCRUM is a solution for building software incrementally in most complex environments.
SCRUM is equipped with pragmatic powers which allow it to develop as near to the verge of
chaos as it can be endured by the association. As there a provision for daily review meeting in
the SCRUM methodology, any slip is immediately detected and handled (Beck, 2009). SCRUM
is a value driven development method i.e. often in the heat of other important tasks and deadlines
such as constrain costs, delivery slipped dates product owner often tends to forget what value the
project will deliver. SCRUM works to deliver value product and it is often expressed as a
function of owner’s choice of functionality, time, quality and cost (Vijayasarathy and Turk,
2008).
value = f(functionality, time, quality, cost)
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All four variables are managed by product’s owner and the development is authorized sprint by
sprint. Also, owner has the rights to alter any of the four value driven variables depending upon
the progress to date and value delivered (Song and Osterweil, 2011).
For example: In case of deregulation, there may be a significant change in company’s energy
project. In this case owner can opt to increase cost a little and bring the project within dates to
maximize its value.
Primavera Systems is an example that opted to implement SCRUM framework for their product
development and was amongst the one of the company to share their agile success story
(Richard, 2016). It is a software company that was at the brink of closing in the year 2003 due to
not able to serve their customers with valuable software and products. After they opted for
SCRUM, their productivity rose to double and overtime got reduced to nearly zero. Product
owners got fully engaged with development team and a better product was built in less time. In
later years company was bought by Oracle (Richard, 2016).
These factors make SCRUM the best option to be adopted for the internal system development
of Southern Cross University (Richard, 2016).
Different Projects using SCRUM
Generally people have the thought process that SCRUM works well only with small scale
organizations where project development will usually be small but this is not true. This also
doesn’t mean that SCRUM will work for all kind of organizations, but size is not the true factor
to determine the ability of SCRUM (Nandhakumar and Avison, 2014).
SCRUM works best for the projects that are under tight deadlines, contains a high level of
complexity and possess a high level originality which can be enhanced during development.
SCRUM is usually adopted for the innovative projects where there is a scope to discover
something new. In case the similar project has already been developed previously it doesn’t
require agile approach as the level of novelty will be low (Miller, 2011).
Also, there are some projects with pre-fixed requirements that could be altered at any cost, such
as aerospace industry. It has some of its predefined perimeters that have to be exactly followed
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without making any changes to them. In these kinds of projects, the agile approach is generally
not a good idea.
Using SCRUM approach for the Southern Cross University process will be an advantage as the
university is open to innovation at every step forward. Also, all the innovations added to the
system will directly be handled by the university itself and in case it doesn’t like something it
can be changed at that very moment.
Aspects of Agile Methodology
XP, termed as Extreme Programming framework of agile methodology is amongst the best
options to be adopted for the organization’s system development process as the values that it
covers are the key aspects to an organization, such as: Communication: The views of both user
and system’s team must match, Simplicity: All efforts are focused on today’s requirements
instead worrying about tomorrow, Feedback: Both ends are responsible to provide general
feedback in each case, Courage: System development team is able to refactor the code if required
and Respect: It is expected to respect each and everyone’s work in the team (Feller and
Fitzgerald, 2016).
All these factors are self-explanatory why adopting XP framework would be a good idea for the
organization.
Another framework that could be adopted across the organization is SCRUM as we have already
discussed it usage in the above sections (Cockburn, 2014). Though in SCRUM it may not be the
best framework for systems who have predefined terms and conditions and do not require
alterations but at some point of time in the later stages changes might be needed. Also, as there is
a provision of daily meetings in SCRUM, team will be able to discuss their problems and clear
out all the obstacles that might be coming (Feller and Fitzgerald, 2016).
Conclusion
Thinking agile means a people-centric assessment of the software to be developed. Traditional
approaches are too mechanistic, thus makes them a topic for argument. Also, according to a
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recent research it has been proved that agile teams have increased profit rates 38% faster than
non-agile companies and has been able to generate 40% more revenue. Productivity, flexibility
and higher speed achieved are the key drivers of agile framework and attracting more and more
organizations to switch their technology.
However, one must decide the correct and appropriate technology depending upon the business
needs and it could also be the combination of both agile and waterfall.
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References
Ambler, S. (2012). Agile Modeling: Effective Practices for Extreme Programming and the
Unified Process. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.
Beck, K. (2009). Embracing Change with Extreme Programming. In: Computer, v. 32, Issue 10,
pp 70-77.
Cockburn, A. (2014). Agile Software Development Joins the "Would-Be" Crowd. Cutter IT
Journal 15(1): 6-12.
Feller, J. and Fitzgerald, B. (2016). A Framework Analysis of the Open Source Software
Development Paradigm. 21st Annual International Conference on Information Systems,
Brisbane, Australia.
Highsmith, J. A. (2015). Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to
Managing Complex Systems. New York, NY, Dorset House Publishing.
Jacobsen, I., Christerson, M., Jonsson, P., and Overgaard, G. (2014). Object-Oriented Software
Engineering: A Use-Case-Driven Approach. Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley.
Miller, G. G. (2011). The Characteristics of Agile Software Processes. The 39th International
Conference of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems (TOOLS 39), Santa Barbara, CA.
Nandhakumar, J. and Avison, J. (2014). The fiction of methodological development: a field
study of information systems development. Journal of Information Technology & People, 12(2):
176-191.
Paetsch, F., Eberlein, A., and Maurer, F. (2013). Requirements Engineering and Agile Software
Development. In Proceedings of the Twelfth international Workshop on Enabling Technologies:
infrastructure For Collaborative Enterprises. WETICE. IEEE Computer Society, Washington,
DC.
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Richard, J. (2016). PRIMAVERA SYSTEMS, SCRUM Case Studies, Retrieved on 10th Sept
2018 from: http://www.scrumcasestudies.com/primavera-systems/ and http://bit.ly/2x2cSu8 and
http://bit.ly/2x2veLr .
Song, X. and Osterweil, L. J. (2011). Comparing design methodologies through process
modeling. 1st International Conference on Software Process, Los Alamitos, Calif., IEEE CS
Press.
Vijayasarathy, L. R. and Turk, D. (2008). Agile Software Development: A Survey of Early
Adopters, Journal of Information Technology Management, v. XIX, n. 2, p. 1- 8.
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