Back in September 2007, I gave a presentation at the QUT FIT Dean's Industry Working Breakfast. The relevant portion of the mornings abstract: Focusing on the business perspective Mr Brad Clow will draw on the experience of Workingmouse in delivering commercial projects based on Agile Development Methodologies. His presentation will include not only the advantages of the approach, but issues which need to be addressed in order to successfully establish such an initiative, concerns of business projects moving to an agile approach and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

1. Agile Development Methodologies
Reality vs Hype
Brad Clow
Managing Director, Workingmouse
Thursday, 20th September, 2007
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

2. Waterfall Observations
• Requirements are mainly written in English -
incomplete (lack precision)
• Requirements are often contradictory
• Too many requirements to fit in one Person’s
head at the same time
• The client will change their mind
• Requirements clarification changes fundamental
assumptions
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

3. Honest Questions
• How can we estimate
• How can we commit (with integrity) to develop
the incomplete requirements to a deadline
• How can developers do quality work when scope
changes, but timeline doesn’t
• Why should developers bear the brunt of the
consequences of an inefficient process
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

4. First Taste
• Extreme Programming (XP) is a terrible name
• We know relatively little at the start of a project - we
learn what is truly valuable as we progress
• Just enough high-level planning up front
• Fix cost, time and quality
• Cycle around small pieces of functionality:
– Business -> requirements, Developers estimate
– Business prioritises, Developers develop
• The cost of requirements decisions are visible
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

5. RSA
• Product: RSA Key Manager
• Purpose
– Central key generation
– Key/security objects lifecycle management
• 12 Developers, shared QA & Tech. Writers
• Approximately 1 year old as an agile project
• Following XP
• 2 week iterations
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

6. RSA
• Benefits
– Drives engineering best practice
– Higher quality code sooner
– Skills transfer between staff
• Challenges / Issues
– A single, authoritative customer
– Requirements come from the US
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

7. SAP Research Brisbane
• Identifying new technologies, trends and
business practices, relevant to SAP within 3 - 5
years.
• Goal: Transfer knowledge out of Research
• Code is the vehicle, as well as documentation
• 50 People, including 8 Developers
• Research is an evolutionary activity
• Researcher priorities change due to external
factors on a week-to-week basis
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

8. SAP Research Brisbane
• Benefits
– Rapid prototyping
– Commercialisation path (due to code quality)
– Prototypes which other people can use
– Positive working environment
• Challenges / Issues
– Integrating student code
– Integrating with SAP Product Development
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

9. Scoodi
• www.scoodi.com
• Provides tools for people to act in an
environmentally and socially beneficial way
• Help keeps items in circulation within a local
community
• Following XP (cut down version)
• 3.5 developers, 1 project manager, 1 client rep
• 1 week iterations
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

10. Scoodi
• Benefits
– Break project down into achievable chunks
– Regular feedback and planning
– Adaptable as we better understood the project
• Challenges / Issues
– Would have benefited from a little more up
front planning
– Workload in defining ongoing requirements
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

11. Agile Liabilities
• A single customer representative that can
provide timely and authoritative requirements.
• Separation between the requirements and
financial stake-holders.
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

12. Challenges for New Agile Projects
• Trust
– Dev: estimates are not promises
– Bus: dev working in the business interests
• Development
– Feature orientated approach
– Quality is a day-to-day activity
• Role Changes
– Project Manager
– QA Team
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

13. Summary
• Agile methodologies address real issues in
traditional software development projects.
• To succeed, agile methodologies require a high
level of collaboration between financial and
requirements stake-holders and development.
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2007. All rights reserved.

14. Thank You
© Workingmouse Pty Ltd 2006. All rights reserved.