Improving Agile Development Practices
Kamath, Dayanand (2023)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023053116827
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023053116827
Tiivistelmä
Today’s fast paced internet age demands dynamic execution of business strategies, leading to similar expectations in software development methodology. To respond to changing needs quickly most organizations are following Agile development practices. For large organizations Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) provides good guidance on implementing these Agile practices allowing them to collaborate and work towards organizations common vision and objectives.
This study involved understanding the challenges in early phases of SAFe implementation and working on implementing tools to improve the collaboration between stakeholders covering planning, tracking, reporting and metrics analysis. The basic guidelines on tools usage and support was provided by the organization’s tools support team. Based on the guidelines these tools were setup for effective SAFe practice. This work is described in this thesis.
Challenges in SAFe setup were reviewed, and solutions were agreed with relevant stake-holders on a continuous basis. The challenges were collected from ongoing governance meetings and retrospective meetings. Organization’s Agile Center of Excellence and quality assurance practices, compliance expectations, and audit findings were a source for ongoing improvement backlog. Initiatives were reviewed with relevant stakeholders through proof of concepts and workshops. These improvements in collaboration were progressively planned and implemented with support from organization’s respective tools support team. Continuous improvements to setup are ongoing based on usage challenges and feedback.
These initiatives have helped in using organization’s standard toolsets for SAFe based software development practice. Leveraging common tools and practices makes easier collaboration, support and governance across the organization. This has improved stakeholder collaboration between business, portfolio/program management, development and operations teams. It has improved visibility of planned objectives, progress reporting, dependency tracking, test management, governance and metrics reporting. The tools implemented include – JIRA for planning and progress reporting, qTest for test management, JIRA structures plugin for various progress, dependency tracking and eazyBI for metrics reporting.
The work continues for improving IT Development and Operational practices(DevOps) – reviewing change management practices, automated development gates, test automation, improving release practices and KPI reports.
This study involved understanding the challenges in early phases of SAFe implementation and working on implementing tools to improve the collaboration between stakeholders covering planning, tracking, reporting and metrics analysis. The basic guidelines on tools usage and support was provided by the organization’s tools support team. Based on the guidelines these tools were setup for effective SAFe practice. This work is described in this thesis.
Challenges in SAFe setup were reviewed, and solutions were agreed with relevant stake-holders on a continuous basis. The challenges were collected from ongoing governance meetings and retrospective meetings. Organization’s Agile Center of Excellence and quality assurance practices, compliance expectations, and audit findings were a source for ongoing improvement backlog. Initiatives were reviewed with relevant stakeholders through proof of concepts and workshops. These improvements in collaboration were progressively planned and implemented with support from organization’s respective tools support team. Continuous improvements to setup are ongoing based on usage challenges and feedback.
These initiatives have helped in using organization’s standard toolsets for SAFe based software development practice. Leveraging common tools and practices makes easier collaboration, support and governance across the organization. This has improved stakeholder collaboration between business, portfolio/program management, development and operations teams. It has improved visibility of planned objectives, progress reporting, dependency tracking, test management, governance and metrics reporting. The tools implemented include – JIRA for planning and progress reporting, qTest for test management, JIRA structures plugin for various progress, dependency tracking and eazyBI for metrics reporting.
The work continues for improving IT Development and Operational practices(DevOps) – reviewing change management practices, automated development gates, test automation, improving release practices and KPI reports.