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Agile Process Showcased at IT Architect Event
10/25/2007
To emphasize the point, Ambler said that 80 percent of business stakeholders don't want the software that is written to spec (without citing the source).
Still, something isn't quite right with the performance estimates generally expressed about IT software development. For years, research firms like the Standish Group have found that software development teams aren't doing so well. Only 31 percent of software development projects are deemed successful. Ambler said that such stats don't sound right, and so Dr. Dobb's Journal conducted a study in August of this year to allow people to define project success on their own terms. When you do that, you get significantly better success rates, he said.
So what do business stakeholders want? Respondents to the August Dr. Dobbs Journal survey defined a successful software development project as follows:
- Software was delivered when ready as opposed to being on schedule -- 61.3 percent;
- Software was produced with ROI and under budget -- 79.6 percent;
- Software quality was produced that meets needs, regardless of time and budget constraints -- 87.3 percent; and
- Software met the needs of business stakeholders -- 87.3 percent.
Having a quality product at the end of the process appears to be the key yardstick by which business stakeholders measure the success of any particular software development project.
The least likely people to agree on a software development project are the business stakeholders and the project managers, Ambler said. Business stakeholders are also the least likely to put credence into sending the software development process offshore, he added.
Agile development entails a few model strategies. First, you need to look at the whole picture, plus ensure that the architecture is attractive to your customers. There has to be active business stakeholder participation in making applications as opposed to just IT. After all, business stakeholders have made applications using Excel and Word for years. The use of just-in-time modeling is a good approach in combination with testing. Finally, Ambler said that the "good enough" basis is the most efficient model that you can have. If something is good enough, which is the definition of an agile model, then it is done. The good-enough approach becomes possible when the culture embraces change, he added.
A change requirement late in the lifecycle should be considered to be a competitive advantage, as long as you can act on it. Traditional change management, where you try to prevent a requirement from changing, is fundamentally flawed. And that's why business stakeholders don't like IT, Ambler said. He noted that a recent newspaper survey of "the most despised professions" pegged IT at the No. 3 position, just above used car salesmen, and below politicians and lawyers.
Governance is critical to success in agile development, but Ambler compared it to herding cats. The key is in providing the proper motivation for developers (the cats). He cited some successes under the agile process, particularly with regard to getting developers to follow the voting process and do testing.
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