Week 1 - Sheets & Article by Rigby et al. ("Embracing Agile")

Question 1

What are the six crucial practices for capitalizing on agile’s potential, according to Rigby et al.?

Answer 1

1. Learn how agile really works
2. Understand where agile does or does not work
3. Start small and let the word spread
4. Allow “master” teams to customize their practices
5. Practice agile at the top
6. Destroy the barriers to agile behavior

Question 2

What is a project?

Answer 2

A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

Question 3

What is the difference between a project and a process?

Answer 3

• A project is temporary and has a set start- and endpoint when the goal has been fulfilled.
• “Temporary” could also mean that a project can end early, or unsatisfactory.
• Resources are assigned temporarily.
• Projects have limited budgets; processes have stable budgets (& roles).

Question 4

What is a process?

Answer 4

A series of actions taken in order to achieve a result

Question 5

What is (software) project management?

Answer 5

Management concerned with activities ensuring that a project (-result) is delivered on time, within budget, and in accordance to the requirements.

Question 6

What is the crux of the Devil’s Triangle?

Answer 6

Changing one aspect always results in adjusting other aspects, so as to stay “in balance”.
For example: if requirements increase, so do budget and planning.

Question 7

Name some of the Chaos report’s success factors for projects?

Answer 7

• Executive Sponsorship
• Emotional maturity (how people work together)
• User involvement
• Optimization
• Skilled staff
• SAME (architectural framework for all phases of software application development)
• Agile proficiency (skilled in the process)
• Modest execution (few moving parts)
• Project management expertise
• Clear business objectives

Question 8

What does the Agile Manifesto value? (4)

Answer 8

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Question 9

What is the focus of Scrum?

Answer 9

Creative and adaptive teamwork in solving complex problems.

Question 10

What is the focus of Lean development?

Answer 10

Elimination of waste (continually).

Question 11

What is the focus of Kanban?

Answer 11

Reducing lead times and work in process.

Question 12

What are the characteristics of a fashion? (5)

Answer 12

• Norm of progress
• Norm of rationality
• Socio-psychological forces (employee needs)
• Techno-economic forces (organizational needs)
• Innovation devolution

Question 13

What are the three categories of Agile adopters, according to the management fashion theory by Cram and Newell (2016)?

Answer 13

• Crusaders (agile deployment in pure form)
• Tailors (combination of customized agile and traditional techniques)
• Dabblers (ceremonial agile activities along traditional approach, often only short-term before moving to the next development trend)

Question 14

Why is developing IT for government hard?

Answer 14

• National government is not in control regarding ICT projects
• Politicians do not realize that ICT is everywhere
• Government has insufficient insight in costs and benefits of ICT
• Knowledge is lacking
• ICT Project management is weak
  etc. ….

Question 15

What are the four phases (activities) of the design cycle?

Answer 15

Analyze
Design
Implement
Test

Question 16

What are the six phases of the Waterfall method?

Answer 16

Analysis - Design - Implement - Test - Adoption - Maintenance & Usage

Question 17

What are the five phases of the SDLC?

Answer 17

System analysis - Conceptual design - Physical design.- Implementation and Conversion - Operation and Maintenance

Question 18

What are some of the advantages of the Spiral model for software development?

Answer 18

• Focus on early attention on alternatives
• Focus on eliminating errors early
• Viable framework for integrated hardware-software system development

Question 19

What are some of the disadvantages of the Spiral model for software development?

Answer 19

• Matching to contract software
• Relying on risk-assessment expertise
• Complex
• Expensive (only suited for larger projects)
• Risk-driven specification will be people-dependent

Question 20

Name some of Agile’s principles.

Answer 20

satisfy customer
welcome change in requirements
deliver frequently 
business and developers work together
facilitate motivated people to do their jobs
face-to-face communication
working software is the measure for progress
attention to technical excellence
simplicity
self-organizing teams
teams evaluate, learn and adjust

Question 21

What is Extreme Programming (XP)?

Answer 21

A common agile method, where the system is transferred to the users in a series of versions (releases). Each release is a working system that includes functions.

Question 22

What are the XP principles?

Answer 22

• Continuous feedback
• Simplicity (simple solution first; prioritize)
• Embrace change
• Pair programming (learning from experienced colleagues, work in pairs, no owner of code)
• Testing (project is only “done” when passing the test)
• Continuous integration (changes are tested immediately every delivery)

Question 23

What is part of planning? (3)

Answer 23

• Deliverables
• Activities, tasks (also sequencing / parallel)
• Dependencies (A needed for B, manager approval, budget constraints…)

Question 24

What is the goal of scheduling?

Answer 24

• Distributing time and resources over tasks
• Managing dependencies (critical path)
• Reduce ‘false’ dependencies
• Cost estimation

Question 25

What is the critical path?

Answer 25

The sequence of project network activities which add up to the longest overall duration to the finish. This determines the shortest time possible (necessary) to complete the project.