This topic is about : Systems Engineering and Agile Methodology. Questions 1 - 5

Question

This topic is about : Systems Engineering and Agile Methodology.

Questions 1 - 5 should be up to 2 paragraph answers or half a page, Question 6 should be 1 - 1 1/2 page answer, and Question 7 should be 3 page answer.

Question 1: Describe the different types of agile methods that are being widely practiced in today’s environment.

Question 2: In your own words specifically describe how the “scrum” and “kanban” method work.

Question 3: There are 3 key roles in agile: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team member. Describe your understanding of these roles in Scrum vs. Kanban. Do these roles apply in both methods? How are they similar or different in each method.?

Question 4: When would you use scrum or Kanban?

Question 5: What organizational systems (people, process, technology) need to put into place to “Scale Agile” ?

Question 6: The following are (SE) Systems Engineering roles.

Requirements Owner

System Designer

System Analyst

Validation/Verification Engineer

Logistics/Ops Engineer

Glue among Subsystems

Customer Interface

Technical Manager

Information Manager

Process Engineer

Coordinator

Pick any two SE roles from above and write a blog article on each role and how it will be defined in an agile delivery environment and answer the following questions.

What will the roles key deliverable be?

What differences do you see how the role will change between waterfall and agile environments?

Write your opinion if systems engineering and agile are compatible and provide your analysis.

NOTE:

Remember to submit 2 blog articles

Min 1 page and max 1.5 page / blog on Question 6.

Question 7: Research and create a 3 page report that outlines the tools and technology associated with Agile Implementation in large scale organizations (government agencies, financial institutions etc)

Assessment: Your understanding of agile methodology. Your analysis and insights.

Explanation / Answer

1. Agile methodologies encourage rapid and interactive development of the product in small releases. It shortens the timeframe and cost and also improves the quality of the product with continous development and feedback.

It is a disciplined project management process with frequent insepection and adaptations. It is best suited for starting developing the product when the requirements are not finalized and may change over time.

Few of the widely practices agile methodologies are :

(i) Agile Scrum Methodlogy : It is popular agile software development method due to its simplicity and proven productivity. In this, Product Owner works closely with the team to identify and prioritize the tasks in the form of "Product Backlog". Product Backlog consists of every minute task (ranging from Requirement Analisys, Design, Development, Unit Testing, Bug Fixing) which is required to successfully deliver a product.

The timeframe for commiting product backlog is called Sprint which typically ranges from 3-5 weeks. Once a sprint is delivered, product backlog is analyzed and reprioritized if necessary and the next set of functionality is selected for next Sprint planning.

(ii) Lean and Kanban Software Development

Lean is an interactive agile methodology, which focuses on customer satisfaction.

Main prinicples of Lean include eliminating the waste, amplifying learning, delivering as soon as possible, integrity of system.

Kanban focuses on visualizing what we do today, limiting the amount of work in progress, enhancing the flow.

It promotes continuous collaboration and encourages active and ongoing learning.

2. Scrum focuses on meeting the business need by cutting through complexity. It is self-organization to deal with unpredictablity. Various components of scrum are :

Scrum Team - It consists of Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master

Scrum Events - Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective

Scrum Artifacts - Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment.

Kanban methodology makes use of the visual information by using stikcy notes (To do, doing, done) on a whiteboard to create a visualisation of the work. By limiting the work in progress,problems caused by task switching and be avoided and tasks are always priortized.

In short, principles of Kanban are:

Visualize work, Limit work in Progress, Focus on Flow, Continuous improvement

3. Product Owner : The product owner is the content authority for the team, he is typically project's key stakeholder. His responsibilty is to have a vision what he/she wishes to get build and convey the same to the scrum team. Product owner is generally someone from marketting or product management, who has a solid understanding of the market place, users, competition, future trends in domain.

Scrum Master : Scrum master is responsible for ensuring scrum is understood and enacted. Scrum master does not manage the team instead works on removing the impediments of the team members. He/she facilitates scrum events as and when needed, coaches the scrum team in self organization and cross-functionality, helps scrum to be implemented within the organization.

Team Member : Team member in an agile environment is anybody - developer or tester who contributes towards the delivery of the product. He/she works directly on the tasks/ PBIs/ User stories assigned to them and are responsible for the ownership of those tasks. He/She keeps on updating their progress and impediments to the Scrum master.

In Kanban, no set of roles are prescribed, however there will be similar responsibilities shared by the team as that in Scrum but there can be lead specialists or managers in the large teams who manages other team members.

4. When there is some sort of stability in the planned tasks for the sprint, it is better to use Scrum.

But when the requirements are expected to change quickly based on the outside environment (user, customer) Kanban can be incorporated so that the team can change their focus on priorities that got changed.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse T
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.