Amidst the storm of unpredictability that is software
development, you can find calm and control by using
Scrum . An empirical process such as
Scrum uses honest feedback, and frequent
inspection and adaptation to control progress in an unpredictable
environment.
Feedback is obtained from
iterative development that
delivers tested, integrated and working software every 30 days. As
Ken Schwaber says "there's nothing like a tested, integrated system
for bringing a forceful dose of reality into any project. When
people actually sit in front of a system and work with it, then
flaws become truly apparent: both in terms of bugs and in terms of
misunderstood requirements".
Frequent and regular opportunities are available to inspect and
adapt, to check progress and alter direction or to modify the
process. Everything regarding the project is kept visible. If
there's bad news, it's better to know about it as early as possible
while there's still time to address it. On a daily basis there are
the scrum meetings and at the end of each iteration or sprint
there's the review meeting and the retrospective. Adaptive planning
is used to keep long-term plans fluid, while the planning meeting
at the start of each sprint produces a stable plan for that sprint
only.
Further reading:
Mishkin Berteig writes about
Agile Work Uses Lean Thinking -
Empirical Process Control
Tuesday, 13 December 2005
Serenity isn't freedom from the storm, but peace within the storm
Posted by Simon Baker - Permalink
