Mohan KulkarniPM Specialist| MBK ConsultantsPune, Maharashtra State. India, India
For any project of larger and larger size as the scope is higher and hjgher it gets an advantage of scale and per unit cost comes down and as a result the corrousponding absolute cost .
Many say that thiseconomy of scale concept is not true for agile software projects as the coordination cost goes up . How far it is true and if so why it is so?
What value engineering efforts need be put in place to not only reduce the cost but to make it more beneficial to customer with visible value add?
REgds
Mohan Saving Changes...
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Is beyond to apply Agile to software. In the software field this topic has been discussed from long time ago, started from 1956 aprox. That´s because lot of organizations created software factories in countries where different advantages were in place. I participated in leading the open of those factories in several countries for several well known companies. Beyond factories for companies I have the opportunity to help organizations in creating factories to create COTS components. Saving Changes...
While there may be the need to have greater coordination and orchestration work when doing a "team of agile teams" approach, I'd argue it is no greater and still likely less than that for a project following a traditional approach where the PM has to get a lot more involved at the individual team member level and more time is spent up front in planning and design.
Economies of scale are based on having efficient delivery systems which agile approaches would encourage.
Kiron
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1 reply by Mohan Kulkarni
Jun 24, 2020 7:29 AM
Mohan Kulkarni
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Dear Kiron
Thanks for the reply. My view concurrs with yours.
This is the way it should be. Agile claims to be quicker delivery,fast failing, continually value adding ,risk reducing or minimising,,sensitive to changes and quick resolution, timely and holistic prioritisation,maximising the amount of work not done----If this is so then it is essential that it would bring down costs of overheads , cost of rework and repairs, cost of cordination--is it not? While most of the changes would surface at / from requirement and coding stages of development the cost of change also should be minimal.
All this is dependent on how much agile team and project manager ,is matured or saturated in terms of agility and agile mind
Thanks once again for your time
Warm regards
Mohan
One area that may hurt larger projects using agile approaches is change management.
Large projects can gain economy of scale advantages when there are time consuming change management processes. When multiple product changes can be grouped together under fewer change requests, there is less overhead. Approving 10 change items may only add 10% more time to the approval process.
Incremental and/or iterative approaches MAY not fit well into existing change management processes. It could result in higher numbers of change requests, each adding an incremental overhead burden on the project. There are ways to avoid that, such as by streamlining the change process, but it is possible that using new approaches with old processes can create its own set of administrative challenges.
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1 reply by Mohan Kulkarni
Jun 24, 2020 10:05 AM
Mohan Kulkarni
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Dear Keith
You would agree if with agile approach if thecost is going to go up in comparison with traditional approach which will ensure same degree of successful project ,then agile approach loses the charm.
It shall always be true that advantage of economy of scale would be there if the project is larger as proportionatly the overhead cost and cordination cost should go down if project is managed well.
If ,as you said, change management process need be better tailored and made to deliver efficacy ,changes should get handled at lower cost in comparison with smaller project.
If ineffectiveness of change management process is causing additional burden ,then it is project management issue and should be taken care of by Project Management through steering committe by offering options those can be more effective.
In any case ,Agile is expected to give value add much more than ROI and focus on deliverying not only project but customer satifaction at optimal cost of delivery.As said by you new approaches as needed be resorted to as per the scale of project size with agile mind.
Yjanks for your inputs
Regards
Mohan
Saving Changes...
Mohan KulkarniPM Specialist| MBK ConsultantsPune, Maharashtra State. India, India
Jun 23, 2020 1:49 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Mohan -
While there may be the need to have greater coordination and orchestration work when doing a "team of agile teams" approach, I'd argue it is no greater and still likely less than that for a project following a traditional approach where the PM has to get a lot more involved at the individual team member level and more time is spent up front in planning and design.
Economies of scale are based on having efficient delivery systems which agile approaches would encourage.
Kiron
Dear Kiron
Thanks for the reply. My view concurrs with yours.
This is the way it should be. Agile claims to be quicker delivery,fast failing, continually value adding ,risk reducing or minimising,,sensitive to changes and quick resolution, timely and holistic prioritisation,maximising the amount of work not done----If this is so then it is essential that it would bring down costs of overheads , cost of rework and repairs, cost of cordination--is it not? While most of the changes would surface at / from requirement and coding stages of development the cost of change also should be minimal.
All this is dependent on how much agile team and project manager ,is matured or saturated in terms of agility and agile mind
Thanks once again for your time
Warm regards
Mohan
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Jun 24, 2020 7:47 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Sorry to intervene. The problem arrives if people do not understand that Agile is nothing about you stated.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Jun 24, 2020 7:29 AM
Replying to Mohan Kulkarni
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Dear Kiron
Thanks for the reply. My view concurrs with yours.
This is the way it should be. Agile claims to be quicker delivery,fast failing, continually value adding ,risk reducing or minimising,,sensitive to changes and quick resolution, timely and holistic prioritisation,maximising the amount of work not done----If this is so then it is essential that it would bring down costs of overheads , cost of rework and repairs, cost of cordination--is it not? While most of the changes would surface at / from requirement and coding stages of development the cost of change also should be minimal.
All this is dependent on how much agile team and project manager ,is matured or saturated in terms of agility and agile mind
Thanks once again for your time
Warm regards
Mohan
Sorry to intervene. The problem arrives if people do not understand that Agile is nothing about you stated. Saving Changes...
Mohan KulkarniPM Specialist| MBK ConsultantsPune, Maharashtra State. India, India
Jun 23, 2020 2:20 PM
Replying to Keith Novak
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One area that may hurt larger projects using agile approaches is change management.
Large projects can gain economy of scale advantages when there are time consuming change management processes. When multiple product changes can be grouped together under fewer change requests, there is less overhead. Approving 10 change items may only add 10% more time to the approval process.
Incremental and/or iterative approaches MAY not fit well into existing change management processes. It could result in higher numbers of change requests, each adding an incremental overhead burden on the project. There are ways to avoid that, such as by streamlining the change process, but it is possible that using new approaches with old processes can create its own set of administrative challenges.
Dear Keith
You would agree if with agile approach if thecost is going to go up in comparison with traditional approach which will ensure same degree of successful project ,then agile approach loses the charm.
It shall always be true that advantage of economy of scale would be there if the project is larger as proportionatly the overhead cost and cordination cost should go down if project is managed well.
If ,as you said, change management process need be better tailored and made to deliver efficacy ,changes should get handled at lower cost in comparison with smaller project.
If ineffectiveness of change management process is causing additional burden ,then it is project management issue and should be taken care of by Project Management through steering committe by offering options those can be more effective.
In any case ,Agile is expected to give value add much more than ROI and focus on deliverying not only project but customer satifaction at optimal cost of delivery.As said by you new approaches as needed be resorted to as per the scale of project size with agile mind.
Yjanks for your inputs
Regards
Mohan Saving Changes...
Perhaps one pertinent point is that agility tends to make work scale relatively linearly. A more predictive approach often means that work starts more slowly and perhaps takes longer to reach greatest efficiency. I would anyway expect a stable team doing most kinds of work to become more productive as time goes on. Saving Changes...
"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining."
