Federal Agencies Adopting Agile Scrum to Deal With the Effects of Sequestration and Shutdown By: Hunter McCluer, CSM, Agile Coach
Herndon, VA (PRWEB) October 08, 2013 -- Why is Agile Scrum "Scrum" being adopted as such a high rate by federal agencies? Now, more than ever, in this time of fiscal and government, uncertainty, federal agencies and the contract firms that support them, are looking to streamline their software development and deployment processes. Ways to quickly and efficiently deliver value and results to their customers, in these uncertain times.
Agile Scrum represents a fundamental shift from traditional "Waterfall" methodologies. An inherent flaw of waterfall is the assumption we know everything up front, and that there will be little to no changes during the project. Even if requirements do not change, the priority, timeframe, funding and/or customer may change. Many, many agency initiatives have experienced one of more of these in the last 24 months; Reduced or constrained funding. Change in stakeholders or customers. Change in the mission goals and objectives. As Agile Scrum incorporates short, fixed length repeating cycles, Scrum welcomes and supports change. It allows customer and technical teams to quickly establish a "beach head" of success / and build from there. To deliver early and often, and improve as they go.
Traditional waterfall projects follow a set of linear steps / gates which hinder a team's ability to learn and improve. As waterfall projects tend to be a long time from start to production release / customer acceptance, additional overhead (customer reviews and approval gates) are needed to review progress. As adjustments, improvements may not be easily incorporated; the product suffers, and usually achieves a lower acceptance and usability rating by the customer. All of these can lead to an overall negative rating for the initiative, the stakeholders, the customers and the technical teams.
Agile Scrum is small, repeating cycles (Sprints), which include production deployments and / or the ability to "Rack and Stack" Sprints into larger releases. While the work / deliverables can be planned out in advance, the "Magic" happens when the customer(s) and Scrum Teams confirm and deliver the work as close to the actual Sprint as possible. Scrum Teams (technical and customer), benefit from the ability to "Do, See, Improve, Repeat" as they go. Agile Scrum is a methodology / framework that supports and adopts to change. The overall product also benefits from Agile Scrum by achieving a higher customer acceptance and usability rating.
Great Agile Scrum is as much about what the team does not do / deliver, as what it does. In its inherent effort to eliminate waste and achieve balance, Agile Scrum focuses more on customer and team member involvement, and less on milestone reviews or artifacts. While there are deliverables, Agile Scrum’s main measure of success is the on-going release of application updates / Production Deployments. As there is more alignment, transparency and communication in Agile Scrum, and less overhead / deliverables, the team can better focus and deliver. This focus helps the Scrum team reduce time, cost and risk, while improving quality and ROI. These are some of the main reasons why Agile Scrum is being adopted at such at high rate, by federal agencies.
About the Author:
Hunter McCluer is the Agile Business Unit Director for IBA, and is both PMI and Scrum Alliance Certified. He has over 27 years of proven success helping teams improve their understanding and delivery of complex client solutions. His industry experience includes Defense Health, State and Federal Government, Health Care, Finance and Mortgage Banking, Cellular and Digital Wireless, Education, and Television, Internet and Mobile Advertising. You can reach Mr. McCluer at mccluerh(at)ibacorp(dot)us.
Hunter McCluer, Irving Burton Associates, Inc., http://www.ibacorp.us, +1 (571) 830-5075, [email protected]
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