Agile Methodology And Software Development Techniques Overview

Agile Methodology and SCRUM Team

Agile methodology is one of the most prominent approach that is adopted by the project team to conclude a project to successful delivery. The discussed approach takes consideration of the uncertainty that may occur and assist the development team. The discussed method assists in coping up with the uncertainty by following iterative development approach where the requirement along with the solution evolves with the uncertainty. The evolution of requirement and the solution takes place with assistance of the collaboration among the “self-organising cross-functional team”. The key terms that have association with the agile development method are the sprints (incremental & iterative work sequence) and the self-organizing cross-functional teams (SCRUM team). The Scrum team believes in making their own statement for the problem in hand rather than consulting someone from outside. The team consists of the project owner, scrum master and the development team. The sprint refers to the mathematical process which adopts an initial guess that furthers assists in developing a sequence for improving of the approximate remedial measures for a class of identified challenges where the n^th approximation takes assistance of the (n-1)^th approximation. The agile methodology is an umbrella within which different methodologies are operational four of them has been discussed in the following sections.  

Scrum as discussed above is one of the most prominent part of the agile methodology and is a methodology for development of the projects in itself. It pursues the iterative & incremental agile SDF (software/ system development framework). The key feature of the discussed methodology is that it focuses on the team as a unit and they together pursue towards obtaining the common goal of developing the system or software. The Scrum methodology opposes the traditional methodology of doing things which consumes time and effort, instead the deemed methodology embraces the changing scenario and tackles it with creativity. Hence, it can be stated that the most prominent feature of the discussed methodology is its capability and desire to learn during the development procedure. The learning capability makes the developed system more futuristic and creative.

Advantages: Scrum offers definite benefits and the most prominent of them has been discussed as follows:

• The discussed methodology is a continuously learning procedure and hence, omitting challenges and rectifying the errors is considerably simple.
• The visibility of all the processes of a stage is visible.
• The change of requirements for the developed system can easily be adopted in by the discussed methodology and hence making the process highly flexible.
• The discussed method continuously seeks customer’s feedback enabling the chances of better offering than expectation.
• The discussed method is time and financial efficient & effective.

Challenges: The challenges of the discussed method have been listed as follows:

• The team in the discussed methodology works as a unit and if the team leader attempt to govern the whole process with strictness than a conflict may arise in project development team.
• Unable to retain th employee for a complete project cycle cites adverse effect on the project.
• Demands an experienced group that have experience in the project development.
• Additionally, the requirement of the discussed method generally keeps on changing according to the client’s requirement or based upon the customer’s feedback making it difficult for the project team to do repetitive testings.

FDD abbreviated form of feature driven development is another one of the most prominent system/ software development methodology that is massively adopted globally. The discussed unlike the Scrum believes in planning and to attain the objective it designs and develops a strategical plan for each feature of the system. Following the strategical planning, the deemed methodology pursues a series of inspectional actions to justify the validity of the feature in real-world or development application. The discussed approach is deemed most appropriate for the projects that consists a larger number of developers assisting in completion of a project at a large scale. The discussed methodology had its share of pros and cons and they have been listed as following sections.

SCRUM Methodology Features and Advantages

Advantages: The advantages offered by the development methodology have been discussed as follows:

• The discussed methodology is most adequate for large-scale development projects and it ensures value delivery and deems continuous upgradation and in the process enhancing the offerings quality.
• The discussed methodology follows the most well-documented and best tools and techniques to pursue its practises which makes it feasible for the developers to produce the best quality of offerings.
• The results of the discussed methodology are always better than the expected results that is the final product is always better the initial product.

Disadvantages: The disadvantages of the discussed methodology have been listed as follows:

• One of the most prominent disadvantage of the discussed methodology is that it becomes very difficult for small group of developers to adopt this methodology and it is not feasible for a single user to adopt it.
• The success rate of the discussed methodology depends upon the skill level of the developers and the team, if the team lacks skill then the success ratio of the project is very low.
• The documentation of the discussed methodology is scarce that is though the client receives the desired software but they lack the documents of the features which may cite difficulty if the client decides to replicate the system or software.

DSDM abbreviated for the dynamic system/ software development method is the methodology that are equipped to offer assistance in the development of the projects that are largely based on the RAD (Rapid application development) process. The development process of the discussed methodology equips a four phase process where the budget and time are provided with special attention. The DSDM ensures that the development procedure does not escalate the budget and time and for the discussed reason the methodology has emerged as one of the most disruptive choice for the development of the software and systems. The following sections offer the pros and cons of the discussed methodology.

Advantages: The following points are citing witness to the prominence advantages offer by the methodology in consideration:

• The clients are aware of the project development process and continuously provides their suggestion.
• The functionalities of the deliverables are quick and efficient.
• The developers take consideration of the functionality and the offering of the discussed methodology are easy to access for the end users.

Disadvantages: The following points cite the disadvantages of the considered methodology:

• The most prominent disadvantage of the discussed methodology is that though it takes account of the budget and time, it in itself is costly to implement and maintain.
• Another prominent disadvantage of the discussed methodology is that it the large organisations or team of developers can make adequate use of the methodology however, the same cannot be stated for the small organisations and the developers.

Methodology 4:

PDD abbreviated for the plan driven development is a development methodology that according to its name takes account of the plan and plans before acts. The early stages of the deemed methodology are mostly dominated by the planning and the development of the system/ software are also dependent upon the devised planning and hence planning can be called as the key attribute of the discussed methodology. The following sections offers the pros and cons of the discussed methodology.

Advantages: The list attached below cites witness to the advantages that are offered by the discussed methodology:

• The first and most prominent benefit off the discussed approach is that each and every step of the metrology is documented and are devised to be completely secure and also effective and efficient.
• The discussed methodology also reduces the excessive work flow of the organisation.

Challenges: The list bellows cites the weaknesses of the discussed methodology:

• The planning phase is the most crucial part of the discussed methodology and any error in that part leads to complete project failure.
• As everything is pre planned the discussed methodology offers little flexibility and without adequate requirement at the planning phase the project may lead to failure.

The methodologies have its uses in different structures depending upon the organisation and hence, it is recommended that before the adoption of the discussed methodology the project team should asses the complexity and viability of the selected organisation

To: [Name of the Destination]

From: [Name of the Student]

CC: [Name of the Professor]

Date: [Enter the Date]

Re: Adoption and deployment of the UCD (User centric design) based HCI (Human Computer Interface)

The organisation is tackling some issues that needs attention and as part of the solution the development and deployment of the UCD based HCI system has been proposed. It will mitigate the manual challenges of the organisation that are associated with the information and other necessary operations of the organisation. The proposal also deems attentions that the system should be limited as a solution for the challenges rather should also act as a chance of technological advancement that would assist the organisations operations.

The expected result on deployment of the system is that it will enhance the organisation’s operations through automation and in the process offering an efficient and effective mode of operations. Additionally, the workload over the organisational stakeholders will also be mitigated through the adoption of the system. The system is even expected to offer its assistance in the CRM (customer relationship management). The CRM can be maintained by receiving feedback which should be an integral part of the system. Additionally, improvements can also be attached to the system depending upon the need of organisation.

Event	Event Type	Trigger	Source	Activity/Use Case	System Response/Output	Destination
Application Filling	External Event	Registration details are entered	Customers	Registration	Acceptance of the form	System
Reviewable of the form	Internal Event	Admin reviews the form	System	Application review	Application Analysis	Customers
Recording of customer details	Internal Event	The system records computer details	system	Store customer details	Storing customer details	Customers
Online search & order placing		Customer searches, selects and place order	customers	Search & order	The items ready to be shipped	System
Request payment	Internal Event	The system requests payment	system	Request payment	Payment request to ship the order	customer
Payment process		Customer processes payment request	customer	Payment process	The customers pays for the order	system
Order confirmation	Internal Event	Post payment order is confirmed	system	Confirm order	The system confirms the order	customer
Order shipped	Internal Event	Order is shipped	Shipping team	Order shipped	The order is shipped to customers address	customer
Track order	Internal Event	Post shipment.	customer	Track order	The order can be tracked by the customer	system
Monthly report audit	Internal Event	Auditing of the sales report	Audit team	Check Monthly sales report	Monthly sales report is audited	System
Feedback		Customer provides feedback	Customer	feedback	Feedback is received	system

Use Case Name:	Search & order
Scenario:	The customer will search the offering and place order
Triggering Event:	The customer will search the organisational offerings and place the order
Brief Description:	The order id is developed
Actors:	Customer, system
Related Use Case:	Search & use
Stakeholders:	The customers
Precondition:	Customer registers in the system
Post Condition:	Customer will pay
Flow of Activities:	Actor	System
1. Customer searches the order 2. Customer place the order	1. Enables search/ browse 2. Display offerings
Exception Conditions:	The customer is registered

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.

Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.202-217.

Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.