Agile Methodology When Processes Clash with Principles

The Definition of Shippable Product: The definition of task completion is clear in Agile6. Agile mandates that across every sprint, the team completes a �shippable� product. Thus, from the very first sprint, customers can get a deployed version that they can actually make use of. This is another area where there is continued misunderstanding. Engineers continue to claim features to be �complete�, whose meaning is not clearly established (that is, in true Agile sense). Project managers (read scrum masters) fall pray to this age-old conundrum and they continue to track feature completion without passing the key litmus test, namely shippability. �We can demonstrate feature X� is very different from feature X �working� at customer deployment and the customer is �educated� to work with that feature. Change Management and Sprint: It is true that Agile methodology can adapt to changes more easily than other methodologies. The cost of change curve diagram below actually indicates that Agile methodology has a flatter cost for changes compared to traditional waterfall methodology. But, it should be noted that the cost of change is not zero. Several customers engage with vendors with the assertion, �We are still gathering requirements with our end-customers and thus we anticipate a lot of changes along the way. We prefer that you execute the project in Agile to incorporate these changes.� While there is nothing wrong with this statement and this is perhaps a way of life in modern software development, the problem comes when the stakeholders and project managers push the change management to the extreme. Agile recommends that within a sprint changes are well understood and nailed down7. It does not say that you can change requirements within a sprint. Agile recommends that if there are major revisions in requirements within a sprint, the sprint should be abandoned and a new one constituted. A second pertinent point is that Agile promotes the notion of shippable product. So, every sprint is supposed to move the product towards the shippability continuum. Thus, changes to earlier sprints are perhaps as expensive in Agile as it is in the waterfall model (perhaps even more). Not understanding this crucial difference can make change management equally hard in Agile. Conclusion: Agile methodology is here to stay, no doubt. However, as more companies rush to adopt Agile, they ignore the key principles and tenets that are behind the institutionalization of Agile methodology. This article highlights some of the common pitfalls that companies have to be aware of as they roll out Agile methodology within the organization. By far, the biggest challenge seems to be cultural, where the incumbent development methodologies clash with the Agile mindset. This problem is exacerbated when roll-outs happen without adequate training and when there is a lack of emphasis on shift in mindset. The author is Associate Vice President, Photon