The guest lecturer, Mr. Ansar Muhammad, started off his talk by talking about the revolution brought in the field of project management by the introduction of Agile Manifesto. The purpose of this Manifesto was to analyze the current process of software development. It brought the idea that software is not just a product but an interaction between different individuals and the customers should be more valued than the software made for them. It also recognized that working software is more important than mere documentation; documentation without a working version of the software is useless. It also favored customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
The triangular relationship between cost, time and scope in traditional project management
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SCRUM is based on a number of sprints where each sprint is a constant time period division of the project plan. Before the start of a sprint, specific tasks to be done are identified. The purpose of a spring is to complete part of the final product in a given timeframe. After the end of a sprint, its productivity is measured against the set outcomes. While in Agile methodology, all the phases of the software development life cycle run together. Partially developed products are demonstrated to the customer frequently but not after a fixed timeframe. Particularly, SCRUM is a particular agile project management.
The essence of Agile is that it prefers flexible contracts instead of fixed price contracts. It says that built only those things which the customer needs the most, which is only 20 % of the total system. But whatever is built, is of high quality and high demand. Then, you discuss it with the customer and identify new requirements which are subject to change from the initial requirements. Agile does not assume that the quality is stable, which is the basic assumption of the fixed-price models. Agile model is preferable in cases where the complexity of the product is high and requires many re-planning
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Firstly, it provides a platform for self-organization. Every single person in the team is given the freedom to choose his own tasks. This way, people feel more self-motivated and take ownership of the project being made. Secondly, the composition of the team is cross-functional. There is a lot of diversity in the members of the team working together. For example, one person is an expert in front-end web development while the other is exceptional at database
Customer satisfaction is the important part in agile development and it is found by direct contact with the customers.
Working in a team has obviously loads of advantages but it also has some disadvantages. The main one could be time consumption. If people can work better in a team, they can also be more easily distracted and can lead to a waste of time. We all have different personalities and we have more or less affinity with other people and strong personalities might lead to a conflict. Also, team work requires more organisation, structure and monitoring. Some individuals might feel unimportant in a team and in a different scenario some people might take advantage such as working less.
4. Davison, J., Mackinnon, T., & Royle, M. (2004, June). The slacker's guide to project tracking or spending time on more important things. In Agile Development Conference, 2004 (pp. 127-136). IEEE.
Scrum is an Agile methodology system used for project management. The origination of Scrum has helped teams to improve immensely in product delivery, feedback and discoveries, and has also reduced complexity in project. A Certified Scrum Manager is a leader of the Scrum team according to area of specialization. You may like to visit http://www.scrumalliance.org for information on Scrum Training and Certification.
Rather than the long drawn out release cycles in the previously popular waterfall methodology, the agile methodology suggests regular short sprint release cycles called iteration. This allows the customers and stakeholders to have more involvement within the software development process. The iterative approach has become vastly effective in helping software developers improve their skills in estimating schedule for remaining tasks. Schedule estimation is one of the most difficult responsibilities for developers because software issues are common and are unpredictable by nature. By breaking the large requirements down into more manageable sub requirements, the agile process naturally promotes better estimation [1]. Agile methods are people-oriented rather than process-oriented, Qumer and Hender-son-Sellers [2] offer the following definition for the agility method: ‘‘A software development method is said to be an agile software development method when a method is people focused, communications-oriented, flexible (ready to adapt to expected or unexpected change at any time), speedy (encourages rapid and iterative development of the product in small releases), lean (focuses on shortening time frame and cost and on improved quality), responsive (reacts appropriately to expected and unexpected changes), and learning (focuses on improvement during and after product
When we think together as a group we can create viewpoints and perspectives we wouldn’t be able to achieve if we were all working solo and as individuals. Learning as a group is often much more different than learning as an individual. What you’ve learned as a group is entirely different from if you were learning alone because you are able to think of things from different perspectives of other members. Teamwork also creates a table of shared information and skills that you can use later on during individual projects and team projects. Building trust and cooperation> Cooperation is really important to me because if there is something that is going on and we need someone to be able to cooperate with us, we can find a way to get around the problem.
This allows everyone to feel welcome and able to voice their opinions. It also grants for a diverse and unique outlook on how a project will go. In order for all of these characteristics to be effective and useful someone needs to be disciplined and driven. Someone who is disciplined knows what needs to be done and will ensure that they follow through with tasks given to them.
Why do we form teams? The goal of a team is to be able to do something together that could not be done alone. In this big, international, world of business and life we do, in fact, need teams. We need to work together to do all that we truly cannot do alone. Yet, knowing that we need teams is only the first step of many. Everyone has some experience being on a team, but few of us are experts who have done extensive research. A byproduct of this is that there are many common myths that abound about teams. These include misconceptions related to varied topics such as: what makes a team, how to run a team effectively, general attitudes about teamwork, its (teamwork’s) value to business and even its very nature.
The IT strategy for an ecommerce company is not similar to a utility company. For example, the IT strategy for amazon or ebay not similar to that of a power grid company in west coast. IT strategy and budgetary policy is different for Tiffany and United Airlines. Agile leaders constantly think about their IT strategy to ensure IT is in alignment with business strategy of the company. Agile leaders must ensure that knowledge gap is minimal within the organization. By eliminating the knowledge gap, an organization can operate more efficiently and help cut or avoid costs that does not add value to the business. In order to set effective and meaningful IT strategy, leaders should consider designing and architecting an IT organization where IT organizational function, IT architecture and agile development framework are converging well. Another component plays a significant role here which is outsourcing. Agile organization’s decentralized functions along with deeper understanding of applications, software and hardware architecture is advantageous before allocating budget for outsourcing for the agile software development. One way to control IT budget is to ensure IT decisions are business demand driven while demands are well vetted and controlled. Ensure which demands and ideas are quantifiable in terms of value, revenue, efficiency and quality. But at the same time, IT leaders must ensure that
Teams have been around for many years. It is vital for members who are a part of any team to work together so that their labor is not in vain. A major advantage for working cohesively as teams is greater output and interpersonal skills. The drawback of not working in uniformity can lead to project delays and time constraints. Organizations create teams with the purpose of fulfilling certain obligations and acquiring business success. Roming (1996) states that togetherness and dependability means that members within the team assist each other and the team. Which in turn, yields a better-quality product.
As a conclusion for the role that project management plays in today’s business environment, one thing that every single project manager and every single company that uses project management as a supportive tool for projects should bear in mind that successful project management techniques will contribute to the achievement of desired project outcomes, but project management will not stop a project from failing to success it will only enhance the success of the project to a greater limit.
Software methodology development processes developed to streamline associated software development process, with the Waterfall methodology being the first such process in 1970. After the said such time, many new development methodologies such as Agile and Spiral methodologies developed to facilitate the shortcomings of Waterfall. As the Spiral methodology is an iterative development module, where methodology continuously cycles through phases. The Agile Method is an incremental development methodology focused on providing flexibility, through an incremental development. The software development methodologies each serving unique purposes for risk analysis based projects, large-scale, small scale, well-define, and customer-driven projects. Consequentially,
Agile development is chosen when the requirements are not clear. This is the reason that it is chosen for the projects where the rate of risk is high. Agile software development is best for the projects where the project can be divided in mini projects and these mini projects are completed by passing through the phase of design, coding and testing. The results of these iterations clear the requirements gradually. The feedback from the customers also clears the requirements. This is the reason that most of the companies use agile development methodology because of the fact that it has the capability to adapt to difficult situation and chase strict deadlines. Agile method is being used all over the software industry. Most of the developers are aware of the fact that Agile methodology is best for them.
Teamwork is considered beneficial to productivity and unavoidable in most companies. Relying on a bunch of people to successfully complete a task necessitates that they are overcoming their weaknesses and incorporate their strengths. A team is only as strong as its weakest member but amounts to enormous (creative) power when emulsified. Some of the common disadvantages a team faces are competition amongst members, communication struggles, lack of innovation based on herd mentality, and free riding. On the other hand, teamwork has many advantages, increased input from multiple individuals, and accelerated speed in completing tasks, overcoming obstacles due to brainstorming, rewarding interpersonal relationships and building trust, reliability
Groups and teams are stronger together, everyone has it’s own talent/strength but together they are the strongest. Just like a band, each member brings his/her strengths to the table to create something better than each could solo.