Yash ChopraSenior Project and Program Manager| Giesecke and Devrient India Private LimitedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Hi all,
The industry is adopting the AGILE model but I really want to know if anyone of you have an idea on how to implement AGILE methodology to IT Infrastructure projects as I see AGILE implementation very apt for SDLC and Product development only.
The primary preconditions for Agile execution are as below:
1. Always available product owner;
2. Stable, mature, disciplined project team with focus on deliverables;
3. Cross-functional skills in team;
4. Team and product owner empowered to take decisions on outcome and plan;
5. Management support for Agile approach
6. Accepting cone of uncertainty
If these preconditions can be met, there is no reason why an Agile approach cannot work for your projects.
But the question needs to be asked whether the shift to Agile is really needed. Are we doing this because Agile is the new buzzword? Can we quantify the value received from Agile?
The time cost and quality cost of shifting a team over from waterfall to Agile is not usually compensated by the value received in the deliverables. Saving Changes...
Yash ChopraSenior Project and Program Manager| Giesecke and Devrient India Private LimitedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Exactly, I am not a fan of AGILE model but conventional WATERFALL model, but if you look at the market today, there is hardly any opening for traditional PM (waterfall model).
But coming back to the original post, for a Data Center migration or an hardware refresh project, I do not think we can use AGILE. The deliverable cannot be delivered in an iterative way.
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1 reply by Earl Lewis
Apr 19, 2018 10:17 AM
Earl Lewis
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I believe we should use the right project methodology for the conditions at hand. There are small deliverables all along the way in a data center migration project, that could certainly lend themselves to an agile approach. Remember that "agile" includes several methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban. Success of using these approaches depends on many factors including the maturity of the project team, the organizational culture and your organizational structure.
Saving Changes...
Arash Bayazian SarkandiCEO| Eizat Alhayat project management ServicesDubai, United Arab Emirates
you should be more familiar with Life cycle of agile project, as planning is very different than the predictive,
agile methodology is adopted where you need to have lots of changes in project life cycle it is not only in product development, even people working in agile also are differently managed as the are agile. Saving Changes...
Drake SettsuProject Manager / BloggerHi, United States
Good comments Karan.
I would like to add that Agile can be applied to any project when you are flexible with deviating from your waterfall plan. When you see Agile opportunities on a project in progress take advantage of it.
AGILE is a buzzword right now. Intelligent project management is not about saying we are an Agile shop or a Waterfall shop.
Smart project management is using what works to make the project a success. HYBRID is the important buzzword. Saving Changes...
Yash, when it comes to straight IT infrastructure projects, Agile doesn't necessarily have a large part to play. Rolling out 5,000 desktop computers and associated software for example (which I have done) doesn't require Agile. Why? Because I knew the requirements upfront, nothing was likely to change in scope, cross-functional teams were not necessary, and the list goes on.
But your question is a good one. It is often hard to see where Agile can fit into some industries. This community is a good place to start looking :-) Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
The first thing you have to undestand is that Agile is not a process or method. You can apply Agile with any type of process or life cycle. In my actual work place we have applied Agile practices using waterfall and using iterative-incremental life cycles. Both to hugh infrastructure based project (for example to move a whole data center from Mexico to USA).
The other thing to take into account is you wrote "industry is adopting Agile" and I must said that you have to analyze making an impact analysis if your organization is ready for that. If you do not do that you will fail. Saving Changes...
Specific agile practices such as CI/CD might not be applicable to a given infrastructure project, but the underlying values, principles and many other practices can be.
Daily standups, retrospectives, team self-organization, non-solo work and so on can all apply to such projects.
Successful agile transformation begins with a mindset shift leading to modified behavior - that holds true regardless of industry or project type.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Yash ChopraSenior Project and Program Manager| Giesecke and Devrient India Private LimitedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Agree Kiron/Karan/Drake/Sergio, but every time one attends an agile training they only talk about development teams, coding, software testing etc. I will be a good starting point if the Agile coaches give examples of other IT areas or project areas than SDLC , something like an IT infra project or a construction project.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Apr 13, 2018 9:56 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Yash, sorry to talk about me. I was part of the group that created Agile at least formally in 1990 in the USA DoD NSF/Agility Forum. Time after I was part of the software movement when I was one of the group of authors of DSDM where I worked with Arie Van Bennekum (one of the Manifesto authors. By the way, the word software is inside the name of the Manifesto for a reason) and I was trained and worked with other of the Manifesto authors that created the other methods and framewords just because at this time there were not other people to do that. From 1995 including today I am bringing the bread to my table helping organizations to implement Agile at the level Agile was born: enterprise level which means you have to integrate all the architecture layers (business, applications, technlogy, security, information) to not fail continue below
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Apr 13, 2018 8:42 AM
Replying to Yash Chopra
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Agree Kiron/Karan/Drake/Sergio, but every time one attends an agile training they only talk about development teams, coding, software testing etc. I will be a good starting point if the Agile coaches give examples of other IT areas or project areas than SDLC , something like an IT infra project or a construction project.
Yash, sorry to talk about me. I was part of the group that created Agile at least formally in 1990 in the USA DoD NSF/Agility Forum. Time after I was part of the software movement when I was one of the group of authors of DSDM where I worked with Arie Van Bennekum (one of the Manifesto authors. By the way, the word software is inside the name of the Manifesto for a reason) and I was trained and worked with other of the Manifesto authors that created the other methods and framewords just because at this time there were not other people to do that. From 1995 including today I am bringing the bread to my table helping organizations to implement Agile at the level Agile was born: enterprise level which means you have to integrate all the architecture layers (business, applications, technlogy, security, information) to not fail continue below Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
continue from above Unfortunately Agile is used as buzzword. Including it I have spent lot of time explaining to the same people that hire me that Agile is not what they beleive it is: is not deliver faster, is not cut cost, is not put changes in any time of the process, is not related to IT, is not to use a method and that´s all, etc. etc. I prefer that those people said me "goodbye" instead of start working and being fired time after because the expectations are not achieved. So, you will heard lot of things but few things about what Agile really is. I have wrote an article that was pulished by the PMI into the PM Network magazzine because that reason. Saving Changes...
