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At Valpak, the entire IT organization were using Agile Scrum or Kanban processes with two-week sprint delivery cycles. Moreover, one-third of the projects were using hybrid methodologies.

“Agile” was first introduced in 2001, by a team of software engineers looking to improve their adaptiveness and responsiveness to ever-changing requirements. Not knowing where to begin, the team began by formulating principles, which they would use to guide their new development process. Which, in turn, lead to the creation of the Agile Manifesto, and thus a new methodology was born.

The principles of the new “Agile” Methodology emphasize breaking up the traditional long-term software development cycle into several smaller iterations (or releases) of the product within short timeframes. (Douglas & Tech Trends, Inc., 2006) “These principles spoke to me on a very fundamental level,” said Skinner. Realizing that the change in methodology would help his organization to better meet the organizational goals for Blue Cloud’s development as well as propel them strategically ahead of their competition, Mr. Skinner hired a group of external experts in the Agile Methodology to get the process going. The current development structure at Blue Cloud was a traditional development environment, so Mr. Skinner set up a meeting with the organization to introduce them to the new methodology. At this meeting, he introduced a group of skilled consultants in the new methodology that were to lead the implementation. Mr. Skinner knew that the proper management of the implementation of the new Agile Methodology was going to take program expertise and a lot of training for

In Early 2000s, various software systems development methodologies were introduced and were started getting popular. One of them was agile method. Agile is a group of the latest and popular software systems development life cycle methodologies work in iterative way. All the requirements/needs and solutions are solved through collaboration between a development team and a business stakeholder. Agile method usually enhances an organized project management method which promotes regular assessment and revision. And the scrum is a sub group of agile. It is an iterative and incremental agile software development methodology for managing complex software and product development (“The Scrum Guide”).

There is a cross section of projects ranging from a few weeks to a few years. There are also a wide cross section of customers, those capable of articulating clearly their requirements and the ones that are not clear on their requirements and the overall outcome to be achieved. The level of programmers within the Information Technology Department, where development work is executed, range from intermediate to advance or above average programming competence. The Waterfall approach is easier to manage and can be utilized for projects where there are clear requirements and the project is determined to be a long term one. Also, this method may be best suited given the organization’s requirements for thorough documentation and project accountability, when it comes to budget and cost. The Agile methodology can be used for projects where the requirements as well as the expectation from the end product are not as clear. The developers that are above average in terms of their competence can also use this method. In addition, the Agile method is also best suited for the projects that would require rapid

The two reports attempt to explore the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing agile software development over the waterfall model. As described in the reports, more and more organizations are considering the agile process approach versus the more traditional waterfall approach. The agile processes evolved in the late nineties and began to emerge as a primary software development method. While organizations are moving towards agile processes, it is unclear which process is the most used. Article A details a survey in which 153 developers were asked to describe their software development processes. The waterfall method was the most used software development method. However, Article B details that 36 out of 66 projects analyzed revolved around the agile methodology. Nonetheless, both articles conclude that one method or approach is not a best fit for all projects.

Abstract: Scrum Methodology has been the chosen development framework for the past decade. Created in 2001, Scrum has taken over as the development framework of choice by business and companies [7]. Scrums counterpart, the Waterfall Methodology has taken a back seat to Scrum. The traditional developmental framework used by companies and businesses previously was The Waterfall Methodology. When Scrum got developed it created a better understanding of how to develop projects in iterations rather than a linear waterfall style. Scrum is a developmental framework that is done in iterations and can be implemented on many different projects. This paper will go more into depth about the Scrum Methodology, The Three Artifacts, The Three Roles, Scrum Ceremonies, and The Waterfall Methodology.

These iterations typically last one to four weeks and can almost be seen as small projects with actual deliverables (Sindhgatta, Narendra & Sengupta, 2010). Sindhgatta, Narendra and Sengupta (2010) embarked on a case study based on the Scrum agile methodology. Two key roles are the ScrumMaster and product owner. The ScrumMaster is responsible for helping the development team use the Scrum framework and the product owner is the liaison between the development team and the business or end users (Sindhgatta, Narendra & Sengupta, 2010). At the end of each sprint, code is delivered and tested, and feedback is looped back into the model. This is in stark contrast to the waterfall method and facilitates the likelihood of constant change in the agile model (Sindhgatta, Narendra & Sengupta, 2010). As a project evolves, members of the development team and the business may get a better understanding of the requirements which can lead to changes in code that may have already been created as part of earlier sprints (Sindhgatta, Narendra & Sengupta, 2010). This concept of project evolution with changing requirements needs to be allocated into the project schedule as extra time for recoding and retesting (Sindhgatta, Narendra & Sengupta, 2010). This extra time is not something that is built into a waterfall model because the requirements should be a static entity and rework should not be an option

Agile is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development which is performed in a highly collaborative manner by self-organizing teams within an effective governance framework, with "just enough" ceremony, that produces high quality solutions, in a cost effective and timely manner which meets the changing needs of its stakeholders [1].

Scrum and Kanban are both software methodologies that utilize the agile approach to software development. Agile software development is an alternative to the traditional Waterfall model where each step is built in succeeding order. The benefits of the more flexible agile approach give developers the ability to continuous work on and revisit each artifact throughout the project lifecycle. The workflow opens up the ability for changes throughout development and ensures the progression of the project. The similarities and difference between Scrum and Kanban would determine which methodology would be more beneficial to a team.

There were several other areas that teams following the Agile method found to be difficulties which had

This method utilizes smaller cross functional groups of people that work together on complex issues in a creative self-organized team environment. These teams should be comprised of all the right people needed to complete assignments and can include business analysts, developers, testers and the end users. Collaboration, teamwork and change are embraced rather than focusing on processes, extensive documentation and sticking to a precise plan. Incremental phases under agile allow for changes and product releases are delivered after each iteration. The most common agile method is scrum, in which a relatively small group of dedicated resources are solely responsible for every aspect of the work and are self-sufficient. Additional popular agile methods include rapid application development, lean software development, Kanban, extreme programming and scrumban. In the agile manifesto, developed in 2001, some of the key principles are to deliver frequent improvements that add value, to welcome change that adds competitive advantage, to continually work together through motivated individuals and focus on simplicity and maximizing the amount of work not done.

In a paper titled “Software Development Lifecycle Models”, Nayan B. Ruparelia describes many of the different options when developing software including the Waterfall model. The Waterfall model was one of the first true models documented for software development and “has underpinned all other models” (Ruparelia 2010) since inception. Originally developed by Herbert Benington in 1956 and later adjusted by Winston Royce in 1970 (Ruparelia 2010), the Waterfall method became an important and widely used process to get software into the workplace. The model follows a pattern of evaluation, requirements, analysis, design, development, validation, and deployment. Royce’s model also allowed for “iterative feedback” (Ruparelia 2010) that allowed a group to move to a preceding step if feedback was needed. One of the key tenants of the Waterfall method is heavy planning and documenting with a key goal of minimizing risk during coding. Also, collaboration is low across phases as each group in a phase would play a different part in terms of requirements and validation. Traditionally, the Waterfall model is used to develop large and complex software rollouts that require different experience levels and backgrounds to accomplish the overarching goal. Once the software is coded and deployed, the documentation allows for better understanding of what took place if a process needed to be revisited. Other variations of the Waterfall model have been documented but the original version is

The article also covered the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” which was an outcome of an event held in 2001. The “Manifesto for Agile Software Development” is basically a set of values and principles that software developers came up with from that event that should help themselves and others improve the ways of developing software. At the end of the article there is a list of the principles that make up the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The author also covered why Agile is becoming more favorable in regards to the software being delivered in the form of a service and less of a good. He also explained the roles that the licensee and licensor played in the way that the Waterfall Method software was delivered and updated. In addition, he compared it to the way Agile has changed software into more of a service that is conducted over the Internet. This article also covers in a brief paragraph the purpose of a development agreement and some terms that can be included in it to help both parties. Even though these development agreements can provide great uncertainty and high risk allocation, attorneys can use some features of Agile to help with managing those problems, instead of, being opposed to the development of Agile projects. Now in the article, An Excursion to Software Development Life Cycle, the author focuses more on the different stages in the software development

Discussions happened with CXO, Managers, Senior developers, testers to understand pain points, challenges, issues and wish lists