Agile Development

Generally, according to managers, software development projects are all urgent, but the reality is that some are more urgent than others!

Typically, in agile mode, we talk about 3-week sprints following sprint 0 which is the initial “definition” sprint. However, we are encountering more and more situations where the client requires Agile+++ development or, if you prefer, projects that require accelerated Agile development… very accelerated!

We’re talking about one, two or three very short sprints (one or two weeks maximum) with well-defined deliverables and expectations.

Are the demands unrealistic?  Was the planning deficient? That’s another story… One thing is certain: in Agile+++ mode, there is no room for “red tape”, we want competent resources that collaborate with each other and are motivated to deliver!

And how does all this get executed?  So, let’s start at the beginning.

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How can you justify the gap between the initial estimate and the actual Project when almost all projects developed in the last decade have been done in Agile mode, which is a good thing because short delivery cycles are implemented, which implies a better communication with the Customers.

This management approach works like a charm with IT people who understand the impact of this management philosophy in terms of cost, time, and scope on a project: fixed time and cost with variable scope.

However, while developers and IT teams have a good grasp of the subtleties of Agile, this is far from always being the case for other Managers and Senior Management for whom, everything should be fixed: time, cost, and scope!!!

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How can you evaluate the performance of your IT Development Team?

The question is worth asking and not easy to answer; how can you evaluate the performance of your IT development team with certainty?

Evaluating the performance of an IT Development team is not as easy as it sounds. The fact is that IT projects vary greatly in scope, budget and schedule; in this context, it is difficult to compare!

In this post, we will not discuss “mathematical” methods such as the “function point” (FFP) method that allows you to evaluate the necessary load associated with a development in terms of points.  This evaluation gives constant results, what changes is the number of hours required by the development team to program a function point. Unfortunately these methods are not very common.

We will talk about some of the basics…

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Hiring internal IT resources or hire an external firm: the dilemma of every IT Project and a key decision for the Project Manager.

It is true, a new IT Project always calls for a fundamental decision from the Project Manager: should I hire internal IT resources or hire an external firm?

Every IT Project is first and foremost a Management and Logistics challenge. In the sense that each IT project brings its own challenges, its own customer requirements and, at the same time, its own needs in terms of expertise and resources.

The Project Manager must first clearly define the nature of the IT development project to match it with the expertise of his Development team.

The Challenge of IT Resources Scarcity at the Dawn of the 21st Century

The magnitude of the Software Development Project Management and Logistics challenge should not be underestimated. In fact, many companies have been involuntarily slowing down their growth in recent years due to bottlenecks in their internal processes, mainly because of resource scarcity.

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Every IT Project is first and foremost a challenge to evaluate the required capacity and expertise. Indeed, the Manager must constantly re-evaluate the adequacy of his Development team to deliver the next IT Project; both in terms of capacity and expertise.

Information technology tools and technologies play a key role in achieving the growth objectives of companies. More specifically, the automation of certain critical processes can generate a dizzying increase in productivity or a significant improvement in the quality of products and/or customer service.

Consequently, any decision in terms of IT development will have a major impact on the company’s competitiveness and profitability.

In this context, more than one IT Director will spontaneously turn to commercial software to meet the software development demand required to support the company’s growth objectives.

So, in many ways, it seems to us that this is an easy solution for the IT Director and we understand these reasons well:

• The IT Director believes he can quickly fill a capacity gap with a tool that automates certain processes
• The IT Director relies on a known and recognized solution to minimize the risk associated with a Development Project
• The IT Director hopes that the implementation of the commercial solution will be done in a shorter time frame
• The IT Director hopes to minimize his risk by using a solution already developed

While this all sounds very logical, we argue that there is another option that is just as viable and perhaps more profitable; that of the external software development firm.

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The assessment of software development performance, be it of a software development team or a software development project will vary greatly depending on the type of metrics used.

This request for performance assessment in software development projects is constantly coming back and is a source of major concern for Managers; which is quite normal considering the low ratio of projects delivered in time… and costs.

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We strongly believe that Custom Development can and should adapt to IT Legacy systems.

As an IT Consulting firm offering Custom Development Services, we have developed over the years the knack for analysing and recognizing the minutiae of IT legacy systems and designing different communications protocol to exchange data with them.

Of course, if you ask IT how to go about addressing new challenges, they will probably go with the systems and technologies in place. It’s a question of comfort and risk management because it is not usually appreciated to add other systems and applications to the existing IT environment.

But the thing is, that’s not always the best course of action.

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Do we have to remind the positive impact on both productivity and profitability of Custom Software Development and digital technologies? Not really. Nevertheless, it might be interesting to understand its nature, how this impact comes into play, at which levels.

A 2015 study from Deloitte & MIT Sloan shows that digitally mature enterprises are very much focused on globally integrating digital technologies such as Integrated Systems, Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud to transform their business process while enterprises digitally less mature are concentrating on solving specific problems with specific technologies.

The key words here being « globally integrating » ; it’s by integrating globally digital technologies that enterprises transform their business process and their way of doing business, therefore, there must be a global integration strategy of digital technologies and Custom Software Development into play.

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