Agile Methodology Implementation
Introduction
Our client is a wholly owned subsidiary of one of Canada's leading provider of outsourced workplace management services, providing software solutions for real estate management.
Challenge
In order to meet the changing requirements of customers, client decided to adopt Agile Methodology Scrum for software development of a project called 'Broker Retention'. To address resource & cost constraints the client decided to partner with Binary Semantics to outsource the project. Considering that the Product Owners were in Canada and the Development and QA Teams were in India, successful development of the project using Agile Methodology was a big challenge.
Solution
- The High-level documentation for the project was prepared by the Product Owner and shared with the team in India. Scrum Master was appointed in India who created the sprint backlog i.e. document which contained details of how the team planned to implement the features for the upcoming sprint (or iteration). Features were broken down into tasks and time estimated for development. As a general approach shorter iterations of one or two weeks in length were chosen which provided good results.
- Since there was no face to face interaction, comprehensive documentation was a necessity, however in Agile methodology much time could not be spend on documentation alone, hence 'just enough' documentation was created and shared by both the sides, and the emphasis was on proper communication through emails and teleconferencing.
- Short Status Meeting (Daily Scrum) was conducted for 15 minutes every day. The Scrum was scheduled at common working window so that members from both countries could participate. Scrum Master ensured that the rules were being followed and the team remained focused on the goal.
- Identical technical environment was setup was created in both countries to avoid any gaps and ensure consistency in results.
- The Sprint Burndown chart displayed the remaining work in the sprint backlog. This was updated every day to provide a view of the sprint progress.
