Agile Facts

January 10, 2013

Software development has seen lot of changes in respect to how is developed.Previously,the project managers & project leads used to follow waterfall,v,incremental or iterative.But these models never made developers more accountable.Infact PM(Project Manager) was the only point of communication with customer/client.Agile software development emphasizes developers to not only be responsible but also makes them more accountable.So what is different from agile methodology from traditional RDCT(Requirements,Design,Coding & Testing) .I want to describe readers about Agile methodology

Q1.What does Agile mean?

Ans:-Agile in literary means responding to change and also fast track development

Q2.Does “fast track development” means no documentation?

Ans:-Absolutely not everyone believes that agile means no documentation .We have to do documentation but the content and length of document is reduced not the document is not omitted.

Q3.Which projects should follow agile?

Ans:-Generally,R&D projects in a company follow agile methodology.Secondly,when from client side requirements are not clear then this methodology can also be followed.

Q4.If team size is more so can project follow agile methodology?

Ans:-Ideally agile advocates for smaller,organized and self managing teams.So if team size is big then it will be difficult for resources to be allocated.Agile always proposes that there would be no formal assignment of tasks rather the team members would choose modules on which they would want to work upon.Agile advocates that team members are solely responsible and accountable for the modules which they develop.

Q5.If team contains fresher’s then will agile be effective?

Ans:-Agile team should be experienced, sophisticated, equipped,confident and must have ability to work under pressure.Not only this they should be able to deliver effective and efficient results.So freshers would not be able to deliver the needful

Q6.If a project used to follow one model so it is advisable to do away with that model and follow agile?

Ans:No this would only complicate the project and also expose projects to those kind of risks which PM or team would not have anticipated initially.

Q7.”Follow agile no need of process”,Is this correct?

Ans:This is actually a myth which team members have to overcome.Agile means change so which would involve a process in order to get concrete results.

Q8.Difference between scrum,sprint and scrum master?

Ans:-Sprint:-Sprint refers to the duration in which agile project team has to develop working software.Sprint duration can be one week,2 weeks and 3^rd weeks etc.The sprint duration can be negotiated and decided by taking consent of customer.

Scrum:-Each day in sprint is called scrum.Scrum is time period in which developers sit in close locations(pair programming) and work together towards common goal.

Scrum meeting:-Everyday in sprint .There would be a scrum meeting where developers and whole team sit and discuss on 3 key questions which are as bellows:-

1.What have you done yesterday?

2.What are you planning to do today?

3.Are they are any blocker issues?

Scrum meeting is generally time bound (15 minute) where scrum master coordinates the meeting and it’s the responsibility of scrum master to adhere to the timings.

Scrum master:-Scrum master is one of the key persons.He coordinates the whole meeting and he only mantains impediment tracker and makes sure that the agile team is following process strictly.