[4] grouped problems of dstributed agile development and identified seven classes. These classes are culture, timezone, communication, trust, customer collaboration, training and technical as shown in the table below.
Table 2. Classes of distributed agile development problems
5.1. Culture
According to [4] cultural differences can have a crucial impact on effectiveness of team work. In distributed agile software development methodology, many people from different parts of the world with different ethical values, perspectives, traditions, languages and habits have to work each other closely and cooperatively. These barriers naturally effects team harmony negatively in many ways like being reluctant to express thoughts, not showing tenderness to take resposibility and considering software development as an individual issue instead of considering it as a collective teamwork.
5.2. Time zone
According to [4], time zone differences can be a benefit and also a drawback of distributed agile software development. It can be considered as a benefit since different developers from different locations can work on the same code in a continuous manner. Development activity can last through 24 hours. On the other hand, different time zones could affect communication between teams due to different work hours. It is a challenge for distributed teams to arrange a proper meeting plan and to synchronize each other properly.
5.3. Communication
[4] identified communication problems under 3 categories; distant collaboration, increased documentation and remote conferences. In the first category, it is indicated that distance is a problem and prevents team members from collaborating efficiently despite the proper use of comminucation tools. In the...
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...s and tools mentioned above, it is possible to create more effective and productive distributed agile software teams.
Works Cited
[1] S.V.Shrivastava, H.Date, "Distributed Agile Software Development", JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, MAY 2010
[2] K.Sureshchandra, J.Shrinivasavadhani, "Adopting Agile in Distributed Development”, IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering , p.217-221, 2008
[3] A.M.Elhassan Hamid, "Upgrading Distributed Agile Development", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTING, ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING (ICCEEE), 2013
[4] M.Kajko-Mattsson, G.Azizyan, M.K.Magarian, "Classes of Distributed Agile Development Problems", 2010 Agile Conference
[5] R. Phalnikar, V.S. Deshpande, S.D. Joshi, "Applying Agile Principles for Distributed Software Development", International Conference on Advanced Computer Control
The concept of agile management enables the program to meet its needs and provides a value for business effectively and efficiently, unlike the traditional project management which was highly based
Wells, D. (2009). Agile Software Development: A gentle introduction. In Agile Process. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.agile-process.org.
This paper will discuss the effective communication in a team. Looking more in depth on this subject, explain the reason communication is important, how barriers can effect communication. Explain several ways to improved team communication.
It is well known that the team work is far better than performing a task individually. Such kind of practice plays a very important role in software engineering. A lot of things can be achieved together with the combination of diversified people, as they input different tactics and skills so that the main objective of a certain mission can be accomplished appropriately. Even though teaming up and working for a project is essential and helpful; there exist some issues that could bring interruptions and conflicts in the team.
Cultural diversity is an essential piece of the team-building puzzle. As stated earlier, a heterogeneous team usually equals a successful team. A culturally diverse team brings the obvious cultural differences in language, dress and traditions to the table. In addition, less tangible characteristic such as moral values are equally, if not more important. These different methodologies and teachings help influence the team's direction. Persons of Western culture will have a different set of beliefs and methodologies from those of Middle Eastern or Eastern ethnicity. When team members take the time to learn and understand each culture's moral value, the result is a strong team foundation. High performance teams take and incorporate these cultural differences and use these different beliefs and values to attain the team goal.
One of these innovative ways is using a work group. More organisations are now becoming global than ever, which means they rely on distributed teams to carry out certain tasks (Nedelko, Z, 2007). Although nowadays most jobs require a degree of individual and group work, it is left to the management to identify which method might be appropriate for the task (Belbin, M, 2007). In this essay I will be looking at how organisations can use work groups to their advantage, and the different factors that can affect a work group’s performance. In addition, I will also be discussing when it is appropriate to use work groups and individuals, and discussing whether an organisation can reply solely to work groups to be successful.
The successful passing of information creates an important bond between virtual team members. “Without creating the connections, a virtual team can’t do what it needs to; function as a cohesive unit” (Thompson, n.d., Introduction section, ¶2). Information should be specific to the task at hand with a common goal in mind. Complete and accurate information not only helps a team reach its goal, but it also avoids problems and conflicts that arise between members. The importance of clear, concise information in a virtual team can not be stressed enough; however, timing should also be considered when sharing information. Information not received in a timely fashion also jeopardizes the cohesiveness of the team.
Describe the agile method Scrum. Describe all the roles, eg. Product owner, scrum master, etc. (2 pages)
Communication in work teams differs from that in traditional organizations due having different communication patterns; establishing trust is a key factor; open meetings are a vital approach for improving communication; shared management is common; listening, problem solving, disagreement resolution, negotiation and compromise are significant factors; and information flows in all directions to all associates of the organization.
Agile leaders help individuals to grow continuously and not encourage to bring new ideas. The Ideas that trigger positive change. But in order to foster structured change and create innovative organization, IT processes, roles and responsibilities, and quality management needs to be well understood and well defined, which helps improve IT governance performance. At the same time, agile leadership must device a continuous agile delivery across structural and architectural quality factors of the software. That quality delivery framework must check everything from security, robustness and performance in addition to functional aspects of the product. Compound all that with applications running in cloud. So agile leaders must design a fast paced, multifaceted testing environment that can keep up with a face paced agile software releases. So automation comes very handy in an agile testing organization. The right level of scale in a continuous integration environment is crucial to ensure that software quality is not compromised. A true leadership comes from simplicity and agility while a good IT decision making and governing process is in place. Leadership welcomes change and work as an enabler to focus on what is next. Leaders keep their eyes on the value for the business. Focus on what makes sense for the business
Schrodl, Holger and Wind, Stefan, "Adoption of SCRUM for Software Development Projects: An Exploratory Case Study from the ICT Industry" (2011). AMCIS 2011 Proceedings - All Submissions. Paper 256.
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.
Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change.
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
The paper focuses on the key components of agile teams and does not focus on non-agile teams even though a specific team has its own definite team characteristics. Thus, additional research may be needed to understand exactly what are the specific components of agile teams that make them truly agile. The paper focuses only on literature review and actual data may be needed for arriving at an appropriate conclusion and outcome apart from further research in this area. As part of the changed global scenario, many of the software development activities happen across various time zones and in various countries. This may also impact the software development activities. The paper does not focus on this aspect fully and more data is needed to understand the characteristics of agile teams that may need to be preserved during distributed or global software development (GSD). The framework highlights the key areas that need to be focused when agile teams are set up in an organization. The framework also focuses on how to make sure that the teams are set up for success. However, the areas highlighted are not exhaustive and detailed research may be needed to