Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges And Best Practices
Presented to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program:Applied Information Managementand the Graduate School of theUniversity of Oregonin partial fulfillment of therequirement for the degree ofMaster of ScienceImplementing AgileMethodology:Challenges and BestPracticesJeffrey VerretSr. Systems Administrator IIIBonneville Power AdministrationSpring 2018CAPSTONE REPORTUniversity of OregonApplied InformationManagementProgramContinuing and ProfessionalEducation1277 University of OregonEugene, OR 97403-1277(800) 824-2714
Approved byDr. Kara McFallDirector, AIM Program
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best PracticesImplementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best PracticesJeffrey VerretBonneville Power Administration1
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices2
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices3AbstractInformation Technology (IT) projects have a reputation of not delivering business requirements.Historical challenges like meeting cost, quality, and timeline targets remain despite the extensiveexperience most organizations have managing projects of all sizes. The profession continues tohave high profile failures that make headlines, such as the recent healthcare.gov initiative. Thisresearch provides literary sources on agile methodology that can be used to help improve projectprocesses and outcomes.Keywords: agile, deployment, challenges, methodologies, best practices
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices4Table of ContentsAbstract . 3Table of Contents . 4List of Tables and Figures. 6Introduction to the Annotated Bibliography . 7Problem Description . 7Purpose Statement . 11Research Questions . 12Primary question . 12Sub-question . 12Audience Profile . 12Search Report . 13Search strategy . 13Libraries and search engines . 14Databases . 14Key words and phrases . 14Documentation Method . 15Documentation approach . 15Research categories . 15Evaluation criteria . 15
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices5Annotated Bibliography . 17Introduction to the Annotated Bibliography . 17Category A: Agile Effectiveness Within an Organization . 17Category B: Best Practices for Ensuring a Successful Initial Agile Deployment . 35Conclusion . 55Introduction . 55Findings from Category A.Error! Bookmark not defined.Findings from category B .Error! Bookmark not defined.Wrap up .Error! Bookmark not defined.References . 62
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices6List of FiguresFigure 1. Framework for Agile Transformation/Transition Process . 40
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices7Introduction to the Annotated BibliographyProblem DescriptionIt is now more than 17 years since the authors of the Agile Manifesto (Beck et al., 2001)first declared and wrote down the principles that would become the de facto standards of agiledevelopment methodologies, and more than 15 years since the agile movement started to have asignificant impact on the software development industry (Laanti, Solo, & Abrahamsson, 2011).Panditi (2018) noted in a 2018 software study that “Most organizations reported that they areembracing agile within the software development area” (p. 1). The results of the studyspecifically indicate that eight out of ten organizations had committed to adopting agile softwaredevelopment practices, 55 percent were in the midst of adoption, and 25 percent had already putagile into practice (Panditi, 2018).The seventeen original authors and signatories of the Manifesto for Agile SoftwareDevelopment (Beck et al., 2001) were the first to codify and write the following tenets for themethodology: Individuals and iterations [emphasis added] over processes and tools. Working software [emphasis added] over comprehensive documentation. Customer collaboration [emphasis added] over contract negotiation. Responding to change [emphasis added] over following a plan.While recognizing the value of the non-italicized items on the right, the authors of theManifesto for Agile Software Development (Beck et al., 2001) consider the italicized items onthe left to be of greater value to the successful and timely delivery of Information Technology(IT) projects. These four tenets support the following principles of agile software development(Beck et al., 2001):
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices 8The highest priority is customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery ofvaluable software. Changing requirements, even late in the development process, are welcome and canlead to competitive advantage. Working software will be delivered frequently and, where possible, within a shorttimeframe. Business groups and developer groups must work together daily throughout theproject lifecycle. Motivated individuals are at every project’s core; they must be provided with theenvironment, support, and trust needed to succeed. Face-to-face communication is the most effective means of communication to andwithin the team. The primary measure of progress is the delivery of working software. Agile processes lead to sustainable development. Developers, users and otherstakeholders involved in development should be able to maintain a constant paceindefinitely. Agile processes are enhanced by good design and aided by sustained attention totechnical excellence. Simplicity, defined as “the art of maximizing the amount of work not done” (para.11), is necessary. Self-organizing teams can be expected to deliver the best architectures, requirements,and designs.
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices 9Teams will reflect on how to become more effective at regular intervals and adjustbehavior accordingly.These tenants and principals were first developed in response to pressures experienced byIT teams when engaged in projects for organizations which were themselves under pressure toperform and rapidly adjust to changing conditions (Highsmith, 2001). An initial reading of theabove principles may incorrectly indicate a preference for a lack of organizational structure;instead, the principles do provide structure but also result in a lack of organized guidance(Maruping, Venkatech, & Agarwal, 2009). Highsmith (2001) notes that the original creators ofthe agile movement address the dichotomy by stating that the agile movement is not antimethodology:In fact, many of us want to restore credibility to the word methodology. We want torestore a balance. We embrace modeling, but not in order to file some diagram in a dustycorporate repository. We embrace documentation, but not hundreds of pages of nevermaintained and rarely-used tomes. We plan, but recognize the limits of planning in aturbulent environment. (para. 9)From a practical perspective, the above principles translate into software project practicesthat employ high user engagement to reach consensus and build decisions (Ramesh, Cao &Baskerville, 2010). In addition, agile methodologies embrace an iterative approach todevelopment as opposed to a waterfall model that uses a relatively linear and sequential approach(Sureshchandra & Shrinivasavadhani, 2008). Several of the agile principles, such as emphasizingface-to-face communication, evaluating effectiveness, and engaging stakeholders, support thepractice of daily standup meetings (Laanti et al., 2011). The continuous monitoring of
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices10deliverables to meet the agreed upon requirements means that new requirements can beintroduced at any time in the development process (Ramesh, Cao & Baskerville, 2010).Laanti et al. (2011) conducted a large-scale examination of agile practices at Nokia; theirfindings revealed that respondents agreed with the benefits of agile usage, including highersatisfaction and effectiveness, increased quality and transparency, and earlier deletion of faults.Responses to the questionnaire further revealed that 60% of respondents would prefer to staywith the agile methods rather than return to their previous ways of working. Other noted benefitsof using agile methodologies include high visibility of project details, increased team efficiency,greater ability to adapt to change, and greater ability to scale (Vijayasarathy & Turk, 2010).Agile methods place the emphasis on business ownership of products and then prioritize IT teamefforts based on what is of the greatest benefit to the business (Serrador & Pinto, 2014). Thisapproach aims to enhance shared understanding amongst all stakeholders and teams of theproject goals (Tessem, 2014).Agile approaches also offer other benefits to the IT teams that employ thesemethodologies (Chow & Cao, 2008). These benefits include making IT teams aware that they areexpected to become self-sufficient and take corrective actions when needed rather than waitingfor instructions to be mandated from above (Chow & Cao, 2008). Project managers employingagile methods coach the IT teams for ways to improve, identify challenges, and address otherareas such as wider stakeholder engagement in order to minimize distractions to the IT team andbetter allow them to focus purely on delivery (Maruping, Venkatesh & Agarwal, 2009).While the benefits of agile have been well documented, adoption of agile methods canprove to be challenging (Svensson & Host, 2012). Schwaber, Laganza and D’Silva (2007)reported that authors of research on the adoption of agile methods have noted that agile adopters
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices11are often unaware of what agile adoption really means and implementers are often unaware ofhow broad of a change is actually required. Recent research into common challengesorganizations may encounter when attempting to introduce agile systems into a non-agileenvironment have revealed several cautionary areas (Gregory, Barroca, Sharp, Deshpande &Taylor, 2016). Issues include a reluctance to make the necessary project processes changes thatadoption of agile methodologies requires, misunderstanding by management and others withinthe organization of the term Agile and its associated processes, challenges with teamcommunication, insufficient trust between management and IT teams, and disagreements whenprioritizing requirements (Gregory et al., 2016). Additionally, Gregory et al. (2016) note thatthere are established challenges scaling Agile for use in large organizations.Other challenges with agile adoption include limited customer availability, minimalapplication and project documentation, incorrect budget and time estimates resulting fromchange requests, contractual limitations which do not allow for unspecified project adjustments,and disagreements on functional requirements (Inayat, Salim, Marczak, Daneva, &Shamshirband, 2015) Agile project challenges specific to management have included theinability of managers to stop micromanaging and even the use of the term Agile as an excuse topush teams harder (Gregory et al., 2016). If left unaddressed, these challenges, questions, anduncertainties can lead to a far lower level of adoption of agile methods than might otherwiseoccur within an organization (Hohl, Münch, Schneider, & Stupperich, 2016).Purpose StatementThe purpose of this research is to systematically review scholarly sources to describe,demonstrate, guide, and analyze the following topics: (a) the efficacy of agile processes as theyrelate to project success, (b) how agile methodologies applied specifically to Information
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices12Technology projects may be better understood and successfully deployed throughout anorganization, and (c) how agile methods may be maintained to achieve greater projectstakeholder engagement and higher levels of project success.Research QuestionsPrimary question: What are the established best practices for enabling an organizationto successfully employ agile methods?Sub-question: How might these best practices be leveraged within organizations withentrenched workforces that may be resistant to change?Audience ProfileThe primary intended audience for this annotated bibliography includes projectmanagers, program managers, Project Management Office (PMO) leaders, and team managers.Some of the responsibilities of project and program managers and all others who operate out ofthe PMO will be to (a) develop their organizations’ agile knowledge bases, (b) ensure projectreporting is fully consistent across all projects, and (c) facilitate project communication andunderstanding amongst all project stakeholders (Gregory et al., 2016). Given the expected role ofthose within the PMO to facilitate and manage IT projects and programs across the whole of theorganization, their familiarity with agile processes will be necessary to ensure a repeatableprocess. Additionally, members of the PMO staff are expected to interact closely with the ITstaff and, in order to be successful, all project stakeholders must be aware of the expectations oftheir counterparts (Beck, et al., 2001).The secondary audience will be department managers and chief information officers(CIOs). When change is introduced to an organization, engagement will often be driven from thetop-down (Gandomani & Nafchi, 2014). Introducing agile methods to an organization in which
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices13they have not previously been used requires managers to create a movement, not issue a mandate(Gandomani & Nafchi, 2014). Managers work most closely with their teams and will have thestrongest impact in the adoption of agile management planning and successful execution withintheir teams (Tessem, 2014). This study may be able to serve as a blueprint or guide for managersto outline the advantages of adopting agile methodologies within their teams.Search ReportSearch strategy. I performed the initial search using the advanced search function of theGoogle Scholar search engine to take advantage of the date filter function. Unless the journalarticle can be considered a foundational text, it is likely that research performed more than tenyears ago will be of lesser value than more recent articles. I used Google Scholar’s advancedsearch which allows returns to be filtered so that searches will only return research publishedafter a specified date.Once I collected samples of three or four journal articles I saved them to Zotero, whichhas a tab listing the associated metadata tags of each journal article. Armed with this list ofmetadata tags, I began the initial search of the University of Oregon Library system. The initialstep of using Zotero to identify a set of metadata tags was certainly not necessary, as a similarresult could have been accomplished directly within the UO Library system, but at the time Ideemed the method useful for uncovering previously unexplored metadata tags. I used a filtersimilar to that of the advanced Google Scholar to only return research published after a specifieddate. A significant advantage of the OU Library system is that it can now display a short list ofjournal articles which have also been accessed and reviewed by those who have previously readthe article. This feature was extremely helpful in locating potentially relevant research.
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices14Libraries and search engines. I accomplished research for this annotated bibliographyusing the following libraries and search engines: Google Scholar. UO Library system. Bonneville Power Administration Department of Energy (DOE) library system.Databases. I accessed the following databases to search for reference materials for thisannotated bibliography: Computer Source. CiteSeer. Academic Search Premier. Scholars’ Bank. ScienceDirect. Web of Science. Computer Source.Key words and phrases. It was important to have a search strategy to effectively locaterelevant research before performing searches through the previously mentioned search enginesand databases. One part of an effective search strategy is the search terms. Below is the list ofsuch terms I used to find sources for this annotated bibliography: Agile methods. Critical success factors. Software development. Innovation adoption. Organization(al).
Implementing Agile Methodology: Challenges and Best Practices Change resistance. Overcome. Introduce/introducing. Pitfalls.15Documentation MethodDocumentation approach. I used Zotero throughout this project to record and organizeresearch. I almost always performed research for this project on a two-monitor system. When Iread potential reference sources on one monitor I used the other to take notes or create an outlineof the research using Microsoft Word documents. I then added these documents to the standalone Zotero tool and attached them directly to the referenced research. Through the researchprocess three distinct categories became apparent (see below). I created folders for these researchcategories within Zotero and appropriately sorted the entries for each research
adoption of agile methodologies requires, misunderstanding by management and others within the organization of the term Agile and its associated processes, challenges with team communication, insufficient trust between management and IT teams, and disagreemen
1. The need for an agile way of working 6 2. The need for an agile way of working 9 3. Agile Core Values - Agile Project Management Vs. 10 Agile Event Management 4. Agile principles 12 _Agile Principles of Agile Project Management 13 _Agile Principles of VOK DAMS Agile Event Management 14 5. Agile Methods 16 _Scrum in Short 16 _Kanban in Short 18
Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn Agile Game Development with Scrum by Clinton Keith Agile Product Ownership by Roman Pichler Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams by Lisa Crispin and .
1.1 Purpose of the Agile Extension to the BABOK Guide1 1.2 What is Agile Business Analysis?2 1.3 Structure6 Chapter 2:The Agile Mindset 2.1 What is an Agile Mindset?7 2.2 The Agile Mindset, Methodologies, and Frameworks8 2.3 Applying the Agile Mindset9 2.4 Agile Extension and the Agile Ma
Agile World View "Agility" has manydimensions other than IT It ranges from leadership to technological agility Today's focus is on organizational & enterprise agility Agile Leaders Agile Organization Change Agile Acquisition & Contracting Agile Strategic Planning Agile Capability Analysis Agile Program Management Agile Tech.
The Agile Scaling Model (ASM) defines a roadmap for effective adoption and tailoring of agile strategies to meet the unique challenges faced by a system . delivery team. The first step to scaling agile strategies is to adopt a disciplined agile delivery lifecycle which scales mainstream agile construction techniques
In his book on agile analytics [18], Ken Collier has described application of agile principles and agile methodology to data warehousing and business intelligence projects. In this book, the author has stated that agile development is the single best risk mitigation approach. Also agile is the single best means of innovating high quality BI .
Review on Agile Methodology Techniques, Limitations and Challenges Humaira Munir, Noor ul Sabah Abstract: In this era of technology, agile methodology is playing a vital role in development process of software. This is just because the rapidly change in technology day by day so agile methodology took in the development process of projects.
2. Quality Assurance AND Methods of Agile 3. Metrics of quality AND Agile quality assurance 4. Agile AND Quality 5. Agile Quality AND Software Development 6. Agile quality AND Agile methods The search keywords for agile particulars have been merged by using the Boolean ''OR" operator, which
