Agile in Focus, Simplex in Action

Marie Sia
Marie Sia
Nov 7 · 5 min read
Photo by Gautam Lakum on Unsplash

In 1990, the software industry had a realization that a traditional waterfall project management is not adaptive enough to the fast-changing software project requirements. [1] A whole software project development span from weeks to years and some even last for a couple of years. During the whole development phase, technology has experienced tremendous advancement while the project requirements became stagnant making it unfitting for the current situation. With this problem came the need to make software development evolving, adaptive and responsive to the technological advancement and shift in project requirements thus the introduction of Agile Project Management.

Agile Method Overview
Agile Method Overview
Figure 1. Agile Method Overview [1]

Agile is an iterative approach in project handling “where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams”. [2] In this methodology, the development phase of the product is then divided into iterations where each run spans from design to development until product testing. In this way, product features can be released to the client for feedback before continuing on product development. Agile has focused on customer satisfaction through continuous feedback and rapid delivery resulting in increased development flexibility and increased productivity and transparency. It also allows the project team to develop higher quality deliverables with less risk of missed objectives. Even though it offers an advantage over the traditional management method, concerns such as lack of upfront planning and expert team member requirements still exist.

There are different approaches to implement agile such as Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), Feature Driven Development (FDD), Adaptive System Development (ASD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Lean Software Development (LSD) and Crystal Clear among others. [3] One of the most commonly used subset principles in Agile is Scrum. Scrum is a “framework within which you can employ various processes and techniques.” [4] It is more of an iterative model used to break down complex projects into simpler product features which are then developed in fixed-length iterations called sprints. Every sprint acts as a mini-project implementation where the process takes off from process review and product design and finishes off with product verification and testing. [5] Scrum is distinguished from other Agile principles by its fixed-length development iterations, project team roles and responsibilities, and daily scrum meetings. A Scrum process performs Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum/Stand-up meeting, Sprint Demo and Sprint Retrospective as shown in the Scrum schematic overview in Figure 2.

Scrum Schematic Overview based on Agile Study
Scrum Schematic Overview based on Agile Study
Figure 2. Scrum Schematic Overview based on Agile Study [2]

To constantly adapt to market trends and fast-pace technological advancement, SimplexInternet Inc. has adopted Agile’s Scrum as part of its project handling methodology. In comparison with sequential product development, the Scrum framework treats project requirements differently where the bare minimum requirement is used by the project team to start with the product development on time. Concerning this, a SimplexInternet project starts with a product request which serves as an overview of the product. Using this request, a product feature list document is then created as a baseline of the product to be developed. Since technical knowledge is limited at the start of the development, the product is then subdivided into workable features which are used as the baseline for development. The technical implementation such as APIs to be used is checked and explored during the proper development phase instead. Using the list of product features, the project manager will create a product backlog based on the initial agreement by the stakeholders. As part of the project handling, sprint planning is performed to kick-off the project development phase. This is where the team discuss and agree on the minimum releasable feature for the specific development period. When the sprint development has been started, the project team will do a daily scrum to determine the progress towards the sprint goal. The team collaborates and communicates in daily scrum meetings to allow better project timeline estimation and project adaptation to conflict or additional requirements. As the product development progresses, the team renegotiate and clarifies the scope of the sprint as deeper technical requirements are learned and/or development hindrances are experienced. The team then learns the value of progressive refinement in developing product features that result in to decrease in errors, waste and rework efforts. After each sprint, a sprint review is performed. Though a Sprint review is usually done differently, in SimplexInternet the sprint review is performed just before the next sprint planning but still, the process is the same. In this phase, the team collaborates on what has been done during the previous sprint based on the development status and changes made on the product backlog. With the help of the sprint review, the team gets to understand the scope for the next sprint better allowing better project adjustments with the improvements raised from the previous sprint. Then the process cycle continues until a minimum viable product can be released.

Requirements Handling Difference
Requirements Handling Difference
Figure 3. Requirements Handling Difference [7]

Conclusion

Using Scrum allows the SimplexInternet project managers to be more adaptive to possible technical limitations as well as change requests from clients. This methodology has allowed us, project managers, to review sprint development end-product that result to improve product quality. This and the adaptiveness offered by Scrum have resulted in faster but better quality delivery of the project which in turn increases customer satisfaction. Not only does Scrum deal with customer relationship management but it also builds better internal rapport within the organization as it requires development teams, tester and designers alike to engage with each other to build quality products. But even with the use of Scrum, the company still acknowledges that just like any model, it has its downside. Scrum framework has many features that support and enhance a company’s business goals but we at Simplex still tries to improve on the Agile framework by determining the process bottleneck based on the difficulties and improving it to better serve the company’s needs.

Reference:

[1] “Agile Methodology: An Overview.” March 02, 2018. Dinnie Muslihat. Zenkit.com <https://zenkit.com/en/blog/agile-methodology-an-overview/>

[2] “What is Agile? — What is Scrum? — Agile FAQ’s”. cprime.com. <https://www.cprime.com/resources/what-is-agile-what-is-scrum/>

[3] “What is Scrum and Agile? A quick guide to Agile and Scrum”. Reqtest.com. Aug 7 2018. ReQtest. <https://reqtest.com/agile-blog/agile-scrum-guide/>

[4]”An Introduction to Agile Methodology.” Jan 1,2014. Manas Bhardwaj. codeproject.com <https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/704600/An-Introduction-to-Agile-Methodology>

[5] “The Waterfall Model and the Agile Methodologies: A comparison by project characteristics.” researchgate.com. Feb 2017. Van Casteren, Wilfred. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313768756_The_Waterfall_Model_and_the_Agile_Methodologies_A_comparison_by_project_characteristics>

[6] “What is Scrum?” scrum.org. <https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-scrum >

[7] “Essential Scrum” innolution.com <https://innolution.com/essential-scrum/table-of-contents/chapter-5-requirements-and-user-stories>

Marie Sia

Written by

Marie Sia

SimpleX Internet Blog

Blogs made by SimpleX Internet Philippines’ developers

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