what is agile Flashcards
when was DSDM developed and what does it stand for?
- Dynamic systems development method
what is the purpose of DSDM?
designed to bring some structure to Rapid Application Development or RAD in the IT development world
what is the ‘The DSDM Consortium’.
It is an Agile approach, and is owned by a not for profit organisation called ‘The DSDM Consortium’.
AgilePM is based on
DSDM and was launched in 2010 and brings an Agile approach to project management.
At the heart of DSDM is the need to determine the level of
formality we must use.
Too much formality can ………. whilst too little can ……..
slow things down …… lead to difficulties
the right balance is known as ….
the appropriate level of rigour.
Undertaking a risk assessment early in the project’s life cycle will help us to determine what?
the amount of rigour and in a DSDM project the level of formality and rigour help rather than hinder.
an agile approach provides what?
provides flexibility and the ability to deliver quickly.
what is the traditional approach of agile ..
It contrasts with a traditional approach of specifying exactly what is required, putting together a design solution and then developing the output itself.
Often the traditional approach is difficult to achieve as the customer
generally doesn’t know exactly what they want.
An Agile approach provides for this by creating the output in small steps, each building on the last. This allows the product to
develop quickly but retains the ability to include changes as the knowledge of the output increases.
there are many different approaches to agile development… true or false
true
we have lightweight approaches such as Scrum, which provides for
daily meetings of the team as they work on small pieces of work.
Lean which is focussed on
process efficiency or ‘taking the fat out of the organisation’ and programming methods such as XP or Extreme Programming.
Sometimes the simplicity of these approaches can be their downfall, as there is
no concept of a project, where the delivery is managed through a beginning, middle and end type of process.
This is the strength of DSDM, as it is designed to deliver projects in an Agile way.
DSDM considers the need to be able to
react quickly throughout the development of the product, whilst incorporating the constraints often imposed by corporate cultures and processes.
DSDM provides what?
It provides a framework based on best practice and incorporates the lessons learnt by the DSDM corporation.
Managing project using DSDM helps to resolve
many of the problems we face when running projects in a more traditional manner.
For example, DSDM uses regular facilitated workshops and encourages the team to interact which helps to resolve the natural communications problems faced by many projects.
Late delivery is usually avoided as DSDM focuses on
delivering on time, working on the basis that delivering 80% of the features working and on time is better than trying to deliver everything late.
Customers are human.
As their knowledge of the product increases throughout the development phase they tend to ……..
change their mind
DSDM’s approach to understanding customer requirements, is to
involve the customer in the solution, this helps to avoid these problems stops unwanted features being built and makes sure the business gets what it needs.
we have a philosophy which defines the ‘way we do things’ in using DSDM and this is based on eight principles.
Briefly the principles are:
- Focus on the business need
- Deliver on time
- Collaborate
- Never compromise quality
- Build incrementally from firm foundations
- Develop iteratively
- Communicate continuously and clearly, and
- Demonstrate Control
what is a timebox?
A Timebox is a period of time during which we create a product or part of a product within a fixed timescale.
DSDM’s philosophy states
‘best business value emerges when projects are aligned to clear business goals, deliver frequently and involve the collaboration of motivated and empowered people.
Traditionally, we describe a project as having four key aspects which are
time, cost, quality and features.
Some other methods refer to features as scope.
The DSDM approach is to fix
time, cost and quality at the start and manage problems by varying the amount of features that are provided. We achieve this by agreeing a prioritised set of requirements with the stakeholders at the outset using the MoSCoW rules.
We’ll discuss these later but briefly it stands for Must Have, Should Have, Could Have and Won’t Have for now.
A DSDM project will always deliver a viable solution.
As long as the rules for MoSCoW and Timeboxing are followed, which we will discuss later, a minimum subset of features called the Minimum Usable Subset is guaranteed to be delivered on time and within budget.
In reality what this means is dropping features or requirements starting with the least important if problems occur.
It also makes it easier to prevent scope creep, which is the addition of features to the project’s scope without proper control.
what are the four key aspects that DSDM teams will focus on.
- understand true business priorities
- establish sound business case
- seek continuous business sponsorship and commitment
- gurantee minimum unseable subset
focus on the business need :
- understand true business priorities
- establish sound business case
- seek business continuship and
