Agile Project Management Software Development

Discuss about the Agile Project Management Software Development.

Introduction

Comfort Quilts Limited is an organization with a progressive and ever changing management system that requires a careful consideration when choosing the type of adaptive system to use in its projects. To be of benefit to the organization, the software development should be scientific, efficient, simple and low risk related. Comfort Quilts is looking forward to changing their operations and creating a new market for their consumers. The best way is to find a system that ensures quick change of operations and is also flexible in such a way that it can handle any issues that might arise. According to (Verzuh 2015), a good system gives the involved team a chance to work together while giving feedback of their progress to result into the desired output.

The project team looked at all factors surrounding the company’s activities and decided to adopt the Extreme Programming (XP) system in their management. Comfort Quilts needs to adopt a new system of management that ensures for cost effective operations that will drive the company towards success and also reduce the operation cost. The best way to do this is to use an engineering system that is less costly and still effective in ensuring the achievement of the best results (Fitsilis 2008).

According to the creator of the program Kent Beck, XP is a low-risk, scientific, efficient, lightweight, predictable and flexible process of running projects. It is the traditional system and still the most effective for all individuals even those who are not knowledge equipped in terms of computer processes (Settas 2006). Using modern methods like scrum might be challenging as it requires extensive training of the parties involved so as to attain the best results. A business is all about taking the most effective approaches as long as they give desirable results. Comfort Quilts Limited is in need of a methodology that gives them a chance to carry on with their project without having to change much of its internal operations (McAvoy 2009).

According to (Hoda 2008), XP’s communication, courage, feedback methods and simplicity does not demand much assets other than people. The programming method keeps in mind the cost of the operation and is therefore suitable for a company that just changed its terms of operation. Dealing with natural products for Comfort Quilts is much more challenging than marketing of processed and manufactured goods. Natural operations means that there are less changes done to the product and therefore the price should be considerable. The company should therefore consider adopting XP as it is flexible, cost effective and low risk related to better their chances of profit making (Chemuturi 2010).

Extreme Programming came into existence due to the necessity of developing a system that protects software from risks. As Kent explains it, there was a great economic and human impact of failures that resulted from software development. XP came as a solution to increase the value of delivery that early programs were unable to provide. Most projects fail because they lack proper planning and management which leads to risks of delays, cancellation and failure to deliver quality. (Macholz 2007), states that the ability of an organization to plan a management project and be able to achieve it in due time and get the desired results is a challenge. The processes however got much easier with the introduction of the XP methodology which puts all the factors into consideration.

XP ensures the delivery of a project with time limits and set goals at a minimum cost than any other programs. The Extreme Programming uses the traditional method ‘waterfall’ planning which organizes the activities in a way that ensures for completion of the activity. In the situation at Comfort Quilts, it is possible to achieve the new project by simply laying out the strategies required and giving them a personal approach. The company can therefore heavily benefit from the implementation of the XP methodology as it will preserve their capital and make use of the limited resources to give quality results (Macholz 2007). Unlike other complicated, modern and expensive processes, using the XP method will keep in mind the situation of the company and the need to make profits in the operations.

The traditional resilience of the program is also an issue that facilitates it to play its role with fewer inconveniences. XP can handle the challenges that might arise from the Comfort Quilts Limited situation in a controlled manner. Through its exclusive process, it is easier to take lead, monitor progress and access the final outcomes (Luckey 2006).

During the progress of the management activity at Comfort Limited, there are many parties involved who deserve some kind of treatment to ensure for effective interactions. Each stakeholder require their comfort in the project to enable them perform their duties effectively hence leading to completion and success of the task. The project manager, programmer and clients are the divisions in the project that play the greatest role and XP identifies their rights (Kelkat 2012). To ensure that everything is done in order, the parties must understand their rights and take responsibility for their actions. The client in this case is Comfort Quilts Limited and they have the role of choosing the most beneficial activities for the organization. Clients have the lead role of controlling over the project and choosing the type of personnel they trust the most to give a lead of the operations (Wysocki 2007).

Clients might choose to select their team of project managers or can leave that aspect to the programmers who can also produce their team. It however cost effective if the company has project managers taking control over their activities with the programming team (Fitsilis 2008). Clients and managers have a right of getting the overall plan details like the period and cost involved to accomplish the set objectives. They also need to know of the progress and test the reliability and functionality of the system going through development (Luckey 2006). The clients also have a right to change ideas and request for other substitute operations if they find the previous ones unreliable without incurring additional costs. Finally they deserve to know any changes that occurs during the progress of the operation and plan ahead to ensure for conveniences.

Programmers on the other hand play the purpose of establishing, designing and implementing a methodology that is useful in ensuring that the project at hand is successful. Programmers have the right to get the grasp of the requirements of a project and specific guidelines or priorities required (Mahmood 2017). They should also produce quality work at all instances as well ask for help from clients and superiors if it promotes their delivery of work. Finally they have a right and duty to take their responsibilities instead of waiting for the superiors to assign them.

The software process is an easy and flexible procedure that ensures that each party involved conducts their duties with the required detail and integrity.  The process involves a series of four steps including defining, creating, testing and maintaining the software (Verzuh 2015). Each step varies in terms of the processes that take place and time conducted depending on the type of project involved. The waterfall and spiral models give a detailed explanation of these processes until the establishment of the XP model.

The waterfall model, discovered by Royce, is the oldest in the computer engineering field and has also been widely used. There are five categories according to the waterfall model and they are necessities and description, structure and software design, realization and unit testing, incorporation and system trying, and action and maintenance. According to (Macholz 2007), for the success of system integration, each step must follow the list each after the other. Once the first step of requirements is completed, then the process should remain the same to avoid rework which is costly.

Spiral model on the other hand is usually applicable in the establishment of problems in the software development market. Boehm established this method as a repetitive analysis of risks in a project and try to reduce them in all means possible. It starts with determining objectives, analyzing of risks, developing the product and planning (Dyba 2009). These procedures can happen in any order but repeats themselves in a spiral method to ensure that the program is fully functional and effective.

Both models have similarities especially in the development/ design stage which takes the major aspects of the XP program. The process includes design, code, testing, deployment, and service. For a functional and reliable methodology, it is important to carefully follow these steps and ensure for the provision of the most reliable final results (Verzuh 2015).

Conclusion

Comfort Quilts can effectively use an XP system to give their project a desirable outcome. Since the company seeks change in operations and still maintain their profit margins, then the best methodology will be cost effective and quality as well. XP ensures for an affordable, flexible, low risk and reliable system within a business. The processes involved in the implementation all ensure that the selected program will work to the best interest of the company. All individuals required despite of their efforts play a great role and the project can easily fail without their inputs.

References

Chemuturi, M., & Cagley, T. M. (2010). Mastering software project management: best practices, tools and techniques. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, J. Ross Pub.

Dyba, T. and Dingsoyr, T., 2009. What do we know about agile software development?. IEEE software, 26(5), pp.6-9.

Fitsilis, P., 2008. Comparing PMBOK and Agile Project Management software development processes. In Advances in Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (pp. 378-383). Springer, Dordrecht.

Hoda, R., Noble, J. and Marshall, S., 2008, April. Agile project management. In New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference (Vol. 6, pp. 218-221).

Kelkat, S. A. (2012). Software project management. [Place of publication not identified], Prentice-Hall Of India Pv.

Luckey, T., & Phillips, J. (2006). Software project management for dummies. http://www.123library.org/book_details/?id=11807.

 Macholz, C.W., 2007. XP Project Management.

Mahmood, Z. (2017). Software Project Management for Distributed Computing: Life-Cycle Methods for Developing Scalable and Reliable Tools. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54325-3

McAvoy, J. and Butler, T., 2009. The role of project management in ineffective decision making within Agile software development projects. European Journal of Information Systems, 18(4), pp.372-383.

Settas, D., Bibi, S., Sfetsos, P., Stamelos, I. and Gerogiannis, V., 2006, August. Using bayesian belief networks to model software project management antipatterns. In Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications, 2006. Fourth International Conference on (pp. 117-124). IEEE.

 Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Wysocki, R. K. (2007). Effective Software Project Management. Hoboken, Wiley.