by PMHut Team | Dec 7, 2014 | SCRUM
Scrum Methodology – Agile Software Methodologies
By John Nelson
In our last post, we discussed Agile, its origins, basic concepts, and how it fits into the organization. While we often speak of Agile generically, we have to discuss the development methodologies that share the common philosophical beliefs of Agile.
Scrum is the most prevalent of the Agile methodologies used in software development today, and rightfully so. With Scrum, development is executed via a series of short efforts called sprints. A sprint typically lasts from two to four weeks. The actual duration of each sprint is determined by the customer and the development team, but a sprint should not be too long. We’ll talk more that sprints later.
Scrum Terms and Concepts
Before we begin our discussion of Scrum, we first need to discuss some important terms and concepts associated with Scrum.
- Scrum Team – the Scrum team is generally made up of less than 10 developers, business analysts, testers, etc.
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by PMHut Team | Aug 6, 2014 | Agile Project Management, Cost Estimating
Agile Methodology – Agile Under a Firm Fixed-Price Contract (FFP)
By John Nelson
In our first post on using Agile to develop better software and reduce risk, we discussed Agile in a general sense, talked about its origins, and covered the basic underlying principles.
Project Managers and development teams in today’s business world are becoming more and more familiar with Firm Fixed-Price contracts (FFP). They struggle to adhere to the philosophies of Agile while being confronted with customers and functional managers who want specific features and functionality and want accurate estimates up-front. Many of these customers already have (or believe they have) knowledge of Agile, but want to capitalize on the risk transference that FFP gives them. Having worked in such environments for several years, I have learned just how interesting these situations can be for Project Managers and development teams, and how the development path can be affected as a result. Read the Complete Article
by PMHut Team | Jul 28, 2014 | Agile Project Management
Agile Methodology – Using Agile to Develop Better Software and Reduce Risk
By John Nelson
Imagine an enterprise software development project where the customer says “we are going to take a long time to get this done and we don’t expect to see any results for at least two years”. Can you imagine it? Me neither, and the truth is that it will probably never happen :) So what is reality? In the real world of enterprise software development, the key for any development team is to provide maximum value to and work closely with the customer, to be able to build a culture of true ingenuity, and to be able to meet the customer’s changing needs in a way that there is minimal disruption, if any.
In the early days of software development, it was not uncommon for months to pass before any development began, and once development started, it could be months or years before any type of finished product was ready for testing. Read the Complete Article
