Agility Guide


When referring to development processes, agility is normally taken to mean the absence of a set process that must be followed regardless of the product being developed. However, it does not mean the absence of all process. Agile development means selecting the appropriate process, or parts of a process, that are appropriate for the product and the project.

Not all projects can be as agile as others. Large numbers of stakeholders, the need for documentation, scattered development teams, and other factors will inevitably dictate the degree of agility that can be applied by the project team. As a consequence, you must determine the degree of agility appropriate to your current project. In Chapter 1, we introduced symbols to represent your aspirations for agility. These symbols are intended to guide you as you select the most appropriate way to use the information in this book.

Rabbit projects are those where circumstances allow for the highest degree of agility. They are typically, but not necessarily, smaller projects where close stakeholder participation is possible. Rabbit projects usually include a smaller number of stakeholders.

Participants in rabbit projects may think it odd to consider using any kind of process at all for requirements. However, as you look at the process in this chapter, think not of a process that delivers a requirements specification, but rather of a process that delivers a requirement, or at least requirements, one use case at a time. If you are using eXtreme Programming (most likely with rabbit projects), the fastest way to learn your customer's and (importantly) his organization's requirements is not at the keyboard but at the whiteboard. Pay particular attention to the part that prototyping and scenarios play in the process and to the idea of essence of the system. It is crucial that you understand the difference between a requirement and a solution.

The fastest way to learn your customer's and his organization's requirements is not at the keyboard but at the whiteboard.


Rabbit projects are iterative. They gather requirements in small units (probably one business use case at a time) and then implement the solution piecemeal, using the implementation to get feedback from the stakeholders. However, we stress that this feedback should not be used to find out what the stakeholders wanted in the first place. That is the role of requirements, and it is far more effective and efficient if done using requirements methods. Read on.

Horse projects are the "halfway house" of agility. They use as much agility as possible, but have constraints imposed by the project and the organization. Horse projects should use most of the process we are about to describe, keeping in mind that you could easily use an iterative approach to requirements gathering. That is, the requirements for one unit of workprobably one business use caseare gathered and then the designers start work on those requirements. This strategy needs the overall architecture to be in place before it can work. The advantage is that while the requirements analysts are gathering the requirements for one business use case, the developers are busy building a solution for the requirements from the previous business use case.

The sections on trawling, writing, and the Quality Gateway will be of great interest to horse projects. If these activities are done correctly and iteratively, your project can achieve a considerable effectiveness without becoming bogged down in its own process.

Elephant projects are the least agile, butlike their namesakeare large, are dependable, and have long memories. In such a case, your aspirations toward agility may be limited by the organization of the projectfor example, you may have a large number of scattered stakeholdersor the need to produce formal requirements documentation such as for pharmaceutical or aeronautical projects, projects that entail some contractual obligation, or projects where you are outsourcing some tasks to another organization.

Most of the elements of the requirements process outlined in this chapter are used by elephant projects. But always be on the lookout for opportunities in your project to increase your agility by gathering requirements in an iterative manner.




Mastering the Requirements Process
Mastering the Requirements Process (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0321419499
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 371

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