COMP3001 Technology Management

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COMP3001 Technology Management Professional
Issues Project Management Agile and Iterative
Planning Lecture 7Graham Collins, UCL
graham.collins_at_ucl.ac.uk
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Predictable projects

• Possible to complete specifications then build
• Near start can estimate effort and cost
• Possible to define schedule and order activities
• Adaptation to unpredictable change not normal

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Innovative projects

• Cannot create upfront unchanging and detailed
  specification
• Only as empirical data emerges is it possible to
  plan and estimate
• Adaptive steps driven by build-feedback cycles
  are required
• Creative adaptation the norm.

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Plan Driven Approaches

• Plan driven methods are considered the
  traditional way to develop software
• Methods encourage a waterfall style approach
• Requirements/design/build/test paradigm
• Well defined processes that organisations
  continuously improve

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Characteristics

• Well defined work products
• Verification and validation
• Although iterative and incremental processes
  (evolutionary) processes have gained momentum,
  still a high documentation and traceability
  mandates across requirements, design and code

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Plan-driven Concepts

• Process improvement
• Process capability
• Organizational Maturity
• Process group
• Risk management
• Verification and validation
• Software systems architecture

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Document generation rather than software
development
Planning can cause problems. If too strictly
applied, plans and processes can impede
innovation or lead to mechanical check list
mentality, where the object of the endeavor
becomes so focused on the process that the
product (often along with the customer) is
afforded secondary status.
Barry Boehm Richard Turner (2004), Balancing
Agility and Discipline A guide for the
perplexed, Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-321-18612-5
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eXtreme programming (XP)

• Planning game
• Small frequent releases
• System metaphors
• Simple design
• Testing
• Frequent refactoring
• Pair programming
• Team code ownership
• Continuous integration
• Sustainable pace
• Whole team together
• Coding standards

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Pair Programming
Study Effort Schedule Defect rate Satisfaction Length (hrs)
Williams 15 -43 -60 High gt10
Ciolkowski 9 -46 High 14
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Scrum

• Self directed and self-organizing teams
• No external addition of workload to an iteration
• Daily stand-up meetings
• 30 day iterations
• Client driven iterations with demo at end of each
  to client

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Unified Process
Inception Agreement on scope Elaboration
Vision, requirements and architecture stabilized,
build and test risky core several
iterations Construction Build and test the rest,
largest set of iterations Transition System
deployed, beta testing, release evaluation,
training

• Development in short timeboxed iterations
• Develop high-risk high value first
• Use case driven
• Architecture centric
• Accommodate changes early
• Work together as a team

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Method Comparison
method Concept Dev. Requirements Design Development Maintenance
Scrum
ASD
Lean Dev
Crystal
XP
RUP
OPEN
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Adaptive Planning
R1 R2
R5 R7
Iterations
Milestone 1 1st May R1R10 complete
Milestone 2 1st July R11R20 complete
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Planning

• Team members estimate their time budget each
  iteration
• Volunteering
• Visible project plans
• Iteration Goals risks, coverage, criticality,
  (examples demo of product, skills development)

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Ranking lists
Request Type
Process Sale-pay by credit scenario
Log-in window not closing defect
Handle returns Use case


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Tracking Iteration Progress

• Frequent
• Wall list for small projects
• XP task cards held by the volunteer
• Asking team members to self-record their
  remaining task effort. Better XP practice of a
  daily tracker.
• Test driven development

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Risk Management
Risk Probability Impact
Insufficient number of skilled OO developers H H
Demo not ready for OOP conference Munich M H

Then develop a management plan on wall, ie risk,
actions, owner, status
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Further reading
Kent Beck (2000), Extreme Programming
explainedembrace change, Addison-Wesley ISBN
0-201-61641-6 Jim Highsmith (2002) Agile Software
development Ecosystems, Addison-Wesley ISBN
0-201-76043-6 Paul Allen (2002), Realizing
e-Business with Components, Addison-Wesley
ISBN0-201-67520-X Walker Royce (1998), Software
Project Management A Unified Framework,
Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-201-30958-0 Ian Graham et
al (1997) ,The OPEN Process Specification,
Addison-Wesley ISBN0-201-33133-0 Murray Cantor
(2002) Software Leadership A Guide to Successful
Software Development,Addison-Wesley, ISBN
0-201-70044-1 Philippe Kruchten (2000) The
Rational Unified Process an Introduction, Second
Edition, Addison-Wesley new edition being
published Ian Graham (1998), Requirements
Engineering and Rapid Development An
object-Oriented Approach, Addison-Wesley ISBN
0-201-36047-0