MIS608 - Agile Project Management - Assessment 1 - Research Report on Agile

MIS608

Agile Project Management

Assessment 1

Research Report on Agile

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Question 1 VUCA

1.1 The fluctuation, which is regarded as unstable or unpredictable change, agility is the best solution. Other effective approaches that are suggested include ensuring flexibility in operations, accumulating enough of the required resources, and developing insurance on vital resources that are known to fluctuate suddenly such as fuel (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014, p.313)

1.2 COVID-19 is a good example of a challenge that fits into VUCA, more so volatility and uncertainty. There were variant lockdown measures that affected the operations of businesses and continuously shifting marketplace circumstances. McKinsey explains that there was a need for structural adjustments in instances of these disruptions (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014, p.311)

1.3 The unpredictability and risk explain the COVID-19 challenge better than any other term or phrase (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014, p.312). Fluctuations are defined as unpredictable market conditions on the other hand, uncertainty depicts the challenges of estimating the permanent consequences of the pandemic. Such dimensions are useful as the operations changed frequently due to the ongoing updates in the restriction measures and shopper’s behaviors (Valaskova, Durana & Adamko, 2021, p.1).

1.4 The VUCA challenges such as COVID-19 are well addressed by Agile, especially because it encourages flexibility, multiple feedback loops, and repetition (Kuusisto, 2022, p.20). Agile also makes an organization have its back covered in cases of volatile market since it zeroes on customer needs along with making changes in process with speed (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014, p.314) .

Question 2 The Agile Manifesto

Statement A:

There isn’t a doubt that the availability of necessary tools and technology instruments would be critical to our project's success.’

This opposes the Agile value of assist in ‘people and communication over procedures and technologies. In Agile work, it is not about the different tools you use but about working together and communicating. This disregards the need to learn from feedback and provide customer value in an interdependent teamwork setup informed by technology (Seitsamo-Räsänen, 2021, p.1).

Statement B:

“All of the team’s existing practices are already optimized, meaning that there is no necessity to continuously scan the environment for possibilities for further optimization.”

This contradicts the Agile value of ‘change, responding over following a plan’. The concept of continuous improvement is very topical in Agile. It also states that to improve continuously, the processes by which a team functions have to be constantly reassessed to remain relevant to the dynamic nature of projects hence increasing a team's efficiency and thus The object of this work is to explore an insight of a range of theories and practices of communication and identify how they can be applied to work teams to assist in improving their performance (Dühring, & Zerfass, 2021, p.3).

Statement C:

“They have such an attitude like it should hit the deadline rather than listening to concerns that members have in the team regarding workload or lack of time for their families.”

This is antithetical to the Agile principles that state that value ‘Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.’ The agile process addresses the aspect of sustainable development (Kuhrmann, et al., p.14). Not paying attention to teams about a particular deadline is detrimental to morale and effectiveness. Balancing the work and personal lives is imperative if the employees stay motivated it also guarantees sustained production of quality software that meets the market’s demands without negative effects such as burnout, which rarely ever becomes a possibility.

Statement D:

“The developer should walk away from the keyboard (or click away from the monitor) and should not be burdened with customer requirements or happening in the business world.”

This goes against the Agile principle which is depending on the type of Agile, communication between development and the business needs to be strong to get the software built right (Alzoubi, & Gill, 2020, p.80269). The problem of having developers work in silos might mean the project will provide solutions that do not meet organizational objectives, have low customer satisfaction, and have overall low success rates.

Question 3 The Case for Agile

3.1 Scope (Feature)

From the perspective of scope management, agility helps to make the latter relatively more flexible due to iterative practices. Agile incorporates changes by focusing on what the customers need at any one time (Measey, 2015, p.5) . As for the feature changes, during this project, changes have been made from time to time, but not in a way that would allow some new features to expand the project scope here, only the priorities were adjusted, and the most significant and relevant features were selected.

3.2 Cost

Controlling cost is another area where the iterative use of Agile reduces the overall cost, by measuring progress after completion of each sprint. This makes it easy to make necessary adjustments to the budget and avoid expensive overruns (Cooke, 2014, p.282). Moreover, the flexibility achieved with Agile enables reasonable cost control as opposed to the traditional approach as expenditures correlate with value development in equal infrequent steps.

3.3 Time

When it comes to time delivery Agility’s system of sprints and time-boxes means that time management is on point (Measey, 2015, p.35). These iterations are short to achieve continuous progress inspection and fast response to any alterations. The No Sneezium vs Cold Riddance example used in the case showed how Agile maintained schedules on the project through schedule review and preplanning (Cooke, 2014, p.269).

3.4 Quality

Agile incorporates quality from the ground up into each stage and also includes testing at all stages. In the present study by, the use of an iterative approach made it possible to detect and control for any defects that might be present, which made it possible to produce a quality output (Cooke, 2014, p.278). This is an advantage of agile where early issue detection in addition to constant engagement with the stakeholders assures a better product.

Question 4 Kanban

4.1 The three Kanban boards, one for each week which consists of five stories: -

Figure 1 Kanban board for week 1

Figure 2 Kanban board for week 2

Figure 3 Kanban board for week 3

4.2 The team applied the six core Kanban practices to utilize the Kanban board effectively throughout the project consisting of: -

1. Visualize Work: This is done by leaving a full view meaning all four categories and independently, the team uses the Kanban board to recognize which tasks are in which particular category.

2. Limit WIP: The team does not allow stacking of several tasks on the “In Progress” to prevent swamping the team members, as few activities are being worked on at a time.

3. Manage Flow: The transition from “To Do” to “Approved” is controlled to have no stagnations, while there are daily meetings that let estimate the state of tasks.

4. Make Process Policies Explicit: The team describes the set of rules that allow for crossing over from one state to another (for example, when a task can be moved from “In Progress” to “Done”: only if all subtasks are “Done”).

5. Implement Feedback Loops: To pass on immediate feedback on their processes, at the end of each week, the team has a meeting whereby both the strong and weak points are discussed.

6. Improve Collaboratively, Evolve Experimentally: Each week after the retrospective the team changes their behavior, possibly in the way responsibilities are divided or how the tasks’ importance is re-evaluated in terms of the event (Girvan & Paul, 2017, p.148).

This arrangement links the Kanban board to the project and facilitates clear visualization and work, control and handling as well as improvement for the three-week planning period.

Question 5 Pulling the Andon Cord

5.1 Purpose of Andon in Agile

In the context of the Agile project management approach, there is a similar concept called Andon, which aims at drawing attention to such problems so that the project management addresses the problem as soon as possible since it may harm the quality of the projects being delivered. It is notice that Andon prevents the process from producing subpar work by bringing the work to a halt as soon as a non-conformity has been identified to fix the issues (Ensto, 2014).

5.2 Negative impacts of errors that are not fixed: Large code repository

Unresolved defects are the most dangerous when creating new features on top of the enormous existing code pile this increases technical debt compatibility and failure probability. These defects may make the system more expensive to maintain and also make it more difficult to explain how it can be improved in the future

5.3 Timidity in Getting Defects on Record

They say that the team members may not report defects to the developers due to psychological factors, for example, it is embarrassing to be blamed and criticized, or due to pragmatic reasons, such as the desire to complete work within the shortest possible time without interruption.

5.4 Promoting Reporting Through Servant Leadership

Blameless and transparent culture- A Scrum Master applying servant leadership can facilitate the Scrum Team to maintain an open culture (Aguacia Fiscó, J. (2020), p.2). Further, approving and encouraging the team helps the members to promote reporting of defects enhancing the general quality of the project.

5.5 The ‘Andon’ Question in Stand-Up

Specifically, ‘Andon’ question set for a stand-up meeting is the question ‘What obstacles are in your way?’ Being asked this question, the team members can ask about what can be in the way of one’s project.

5.6 Personal Example of Andon

In group work, I have applied the Andon concept by raising a miscommunication early enough, enabling the team to address it before it escalates, enhancing teaming and project performance.

References

Aguacia Fiscó, J. (2020). Role Of The Scrum Master In Capstone Projects. https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/bitstreams/be5cf20a-ca1d-4f37-8b20-bc57774163e4/download

Alzoubi, Y. I., & Gill, A. Q. (2020). An empirical investigation of geographically distributed agile development: The agile enterprise architecture is a communication enabler. IEEE Access, 8, 80269-80289. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6287639/8948470/09078794.pdf

Bennett, N., & Lemoine, G. J. (2014). What a difference a word makes: Understanding threats to performance in a VUCA world. Business Horizons, 57(3), 311–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.01.001

Cooke, J. L. (2014). Agile Productivity Unleashed: Proven approaches for achieving productivity gains in any organization (2nd ed). UK: ITGP. [Read Section 3, pages 267-289] https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/think/reader.action?docID=1778760&ppg=267

Dühring, L., & Zerfass, A. (2021). The triple role of communications in agile organizations. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 15(2), 93-112.

Ensto (2014, Jun 13). How we use Andon to ensure world class quality in Ensto. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi46P5E4D60

Girvan, L., & Paul, D. (2017). Agile and Business Analysis: Practical Guidance for IT Professionals. BCS Learning & Development Ltd. [Read pages 245-247]. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/think/reader.action?docID=4746867&ppg=266

https://biopen.bi.no/bi-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3088878/zerfass_2021.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y

Kristianto Jahja (2016, May 6). Andon&Loom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkU8DpZu2XY

Kuhrmann, M., Tell, P., Hebig, R., Klünder, J., Münch, J., Linssen, O., ... & Richardson, I. (2021). What makes agile software development agile?. IEEE transactions on software engineering, 48(9), 3523-3539. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.11435

Kuusisto, E., 2022. Approaching VUCA Environment with Enterprise Agility in Government Organization: Case Business Finland and COVID-19. https://osuva.uwasa.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/14079/Emmi%20Kuusisto-Master%27s%20thesis.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Measey, P. (2015). Agile foundations: Principles, practices and frameworks. BCS Learning & Development Limited. [Read pages 18-20]. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/think/reader.action?docID=1759633&ppg=39

Seitsamo-Räsänen, S. (2021). Building an Agile Approach to Individual Feedback. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/498556/Building%20an%20Agile%20Approach%20to%20Individual%20Feedback.pdf?sequence=2

Valaskova, K., Durana, P., & Adamko, P. (2021). Changes in consumers’ purchase patterns as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mathematics, 9(15), 1788. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/15/1788/pdf