Agile at a Glance

A quick overview of what you should know about “big-A” Agile Traditional vs. Agile Software Development (Source: TechFAR Handbook Appendix A)

Topic

Requirements

Methods

Task Identification Traditional Thinking

• Known requirements negotiated upfront • Tasks preplanned to end of period • Government usually applies

“kitchen sink” philosophy, including everything it can think of in the requirements list because a working product won’t be available in a year or longer • Broad goal, “what” and “why,” known upfront, just not “how” • Government states in solicitation process that

Agile processes will be used • Contract requirements are defined pre-award • Technical or system requirements are refined post-award at beginning of each sprint • Relies on frequent inspection and adaptation

Conventional method goes through the following steps in a linear fashion: 1. Design the program 2. Document the design 3. Create a second version of critical design/operations 4. Plan, control, monitor, testing 5. Involve customer Compresses five sequences of conventional method (see left) into shorter cycles, e.g., one to four weeks • Develops a system through repeated cycles and smaller portions • Allows developers to test and review during development • Creates a repeatable model so product is pushed into production quickly

All tasks approved at beginning by customer Team identifies or uncovers work as it goes, from sprint to sprint » Government sets priorities, approves work at beginning of each sprint, accepts work at end of each sprint

Software Delivery Software delivered at end of linear development phase

Changes to Technical/System Requirements

Significant changes in requirements impact cost baseline, which results in contract negotiation Requirements are refined (there may be a tradeoff, which forces prioritization by government)

Agile Thinking

Software delivered frequently with features that allow deployment » This outcome is called a minimum viable product

Timeline of Agile Development

(Source: Government Accountability Office’s Agile Assessment Guide)

1950s – 1980s 1990s 2001 2001 – Present

Iterative software development used occasionally in defense and space programs • Scrum • eXtreme Programming • Dynamic Systems

Development Method Agile Manifesto • DevOps • Disciplined Agile • Lean Software Development • Kanban • Scaled Agile Framework • Scrumban