Agile Software Development and Business Analysis
By: Scott W. Ambler
In this article Scott W. Ambler, Practice Leader Agile Development in the IBM methods group, overviews agile software development and the implications for business analysts.
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Progressive Implementation
I believe that the best way to effectively introduce any new methodology or large scale practice to an organization is to adopt what may be termed a "Virus" approach. Rather than try to introduce some of the concepts across the whole organization at once, introduce all of the concepts to a small part of the organization at once.
As a first step:
- Create a small team of your top people, people who want to see the new thing work, who want to try it and make it successful and are generally well motivated and self sufficient. You will need some, preferably more than one, for each role you see for the practice;
- Get your new team a mentor, someone who has been through the wringer, successfully used the process, and can not only talk about it but practice is themselves. Then put them in a practising position in the team;
- Get a significant, non-vital and manageable project for them to work on that has senior management interest. It should be small enough to complete in a reasonably short time frame e.g. six months, but challenging enough to test the process;
- Get senior management support and organizational backing for the move. Do not let your team be constantly sniped at by opposition camps who do not like change;
- Create the right environment. If it is Agile then create an environment conducive to the way that Agilists should work, get the open rooms, the props, the white boards etc., etc.,
- Set targets that are challenging but at the same time realistic, but do set targets and monitor progress, and continually make adjustments.
When the first project is successfully complete, split your team in two, bring in your next set of people, create two teams, get two more projects of more significance, use your first team as mentors for your second and third teams and repeat the process.
If you started with ten people, and six month projects, then in two years, the "Virus" would have spread significantly, you would have completed 15 projects involving 80 people and be a long way on your trek to change the way your organization operates.