MIS608 Agile Project Management Case Study 3 Sample
Task Summary
In this group assignment, you are required to produce a 2500 words report for the organization presented in the case scenario.
Context
Agile teams and agile ways of working are becoming more prevalent in workplaces and it is likely that you will be a part of an agile team in your career. However, agile is very different from the more traditional ‘waterfall’ project management practice. This assessment will ensure that you are well-versed in the philosophies and practice associated with Agile so that you have sufficient knowledge to join and agile team or implement agile practices in your future career.
Task Instructions
1. Team Formation and Registration
• Form teams of 3-4 members.
• The deadline for team registration is 11:45pm AEST Friday end of Module 1.2 (Week 2).
• To register your team, you are required to send your Learning Facilitator an email with
“[MIS608] Team Registration” in the subject line. In the body of that email, please list the names and student ID numbers of all the members of your team.
• You are required to send the registration email to your facilitator before the registration deadline.
• After the registration deadline, those students who are not in a team will be allocated to a team by the Learning Facilitator.
2. Team Contract
Please read the attached MIS608_Assessment 3_Team Contract.
• Each team is required to complete their team contract as part of the Learning Activity for Module 2.1 (Week 3).
3. Case Study
Please read the attached MIS608_Assessment 3_Case Study.
4. Kanban Boards
• Each group is required to complete Kanban boards as part of learning activities from Module
2.1 (Week 3) up to and including Module 5.2 (Week 10).
• This will need to be included in the appendices of the assessment as evidence of practice.
5. Final Group Report
Write a 2500 words group report following the structure outlined below:
Title page: Should include the subject code and subject name, assignment title, all student’s names and student numbers in the group and the lecturer’s name.
Executive summary: While this report is brief – it will require an Executive Summary, which does not form part of the overall word count.
Introduction (300-350 words): will also serve as your statement of purpose for the report.
This means that you will tell the reader what you are going to cover in your report. You will need to inform the reader of:
a. Your area of research and its context
b. The key concepts you will be addressing,
c. What the reader can expect to find in the body of the report
Body of the report (1800 – 2000 words): will need to respond to the specific requirements of the case study. The areas you will be required to cover are:
a. Agile ceremonies
b. Agile requirements
c. Lean Startup tools used in Agile
d. Agile estimating and planning
e. Agile velocity
f. Scaling Agile after initial success
g. Release planning and cadence
The conclusion (300-350 words): will summarise any findings or recommendations that the report puts forward regarding the concepts covered in the report.
Solution
Introduction
The report is developed in order to accommodate the newly formed electronic motor vehicle company Perun with an efficient, agile methodology that can help the company set up a proper digital dealership that is necessary in order to disrupt the conventional and popular methods of creating dealership networks. Uni Assignment Help, The term digital dealership refers to a system or process that manages and streamlines the process of buying cars by letting the customers use online mediums. The job of digital dealership processes is to automatically let customers effortlessly evaluate, compare and purchase different car models entirely online and, in the process, entice them to buy from the company. Perun is a new company that is a derivative of a leading automotive producer. The primary company is wary of the threats that the popularity of electronic motor vehicles poses to the orthodox car-making market. The focus of Perun is to grab hold of the electronic motor vehicle market by using disruptive methods and to gain a competitive advantage over the competitors of the manufacturing group. Perun is looking to use the already trained employees at the main company as a helping tool. Employees of the information technology and PMO department of the main automotive manufacturer company will be the main helping resource in the operation of the new company Perun. However, these employees are not accustomed to the agile approach as the main company implements a waterfall approach in its workplace. The waterfall approach can work in a more traditional setting or workplace, but in creating a digital distribution network, the model falls apart. This is the reason that Perun is looking to implement agile methodologies in its working operations. The report will discuss the agile methodologies used while developing this dealership for the commercial vehicle company. The concepts will include different agile methodologies such as Agile ceremonies, Agile requirements, Lean Startup tools used in Agile, Agile estimating and planning, Agile velocity, Scaling Agile after initial success, Release planning, and cadence.
The Description of the Specific Requirements
a. Agile Ceremonies
Agile ceremonies are activities taken in an Agile team to encourage and enable communication within teams (Ahmad et al. 2018). The purpose of these ceremonies is to figure out a way to maximise the efficiency of the team by setting up a loop of response or feedback. Even though the primary use of these ceremonies can be seen in a scrum structure, other recognised agile frameworks such as Kanban and Lean also provide the project team with similar sorts of activities. Sprint planning, review, and retrospective are the three main agile ceremonies, along with daily stand-up. The usage of these ceremonies is instrumental to the agile team's success. It is beneficial for the stakeholders of the project, in this case, Perun, as these ceremonies provide efficient and fast execution of the project. For developing the digital dealership network, the team will design a process through which the projected framework of time can be accompanied. The company, through the help of an agile team, will set the expectations of goal achievement related to the proper distribution of products and customer satisfaction. Agile project accomplishment will be targeted through agile ceremonies where the team will maintain the agile practices for developing the digital dealership network. Avoiding the traditional business model, the digital dealership network will create flexibility in the online procurement process.
Sprint planning- This is the preliminary Agile ceremony that starts it all. As its name suggests, sprint planning is responsible for the planning that is done by the project team before beginning each sprint of operation (Julian, Ian & Udayan, 2018). The team that is responsible for developing the product, in this case, a digital dealership platform and related software, the owner of the product, in this case, Perun, and the team leader who is called scrum master conventionally, indulge in this event. The individual or team representing the interests of Perun will discuss the product backlog with the development team. A product backlog is a term that refers to a compilation of work that needs to be done for the completion of a project ranked by priority (Atlassian, 2021b). The result of sprint planning is making decisions for the upcoming sprint that is made with the approval of all parties involved. This decision will be taken as the objective of the next sprint.
Daily Standup- Daily stand-up refers to the meetings and discussions that take place in a short time before the start of the everyday work of a product development team (Pantiuchina et al. 2017). The daily stand-up ceremony can be seen in teams that adhere to the scrum or Kanban framework of Agile. During the daily stand-up, all members of the team ask each other about the situation and progress and the difficulty of their assigned tasks. The result of a daily stand-up is to make sure that no problems are obstructing the path of progress of any team member.
Sprint Review- Sprint review is a ceremony that oversees the result of a specific sprint and analyses it to provide alterations and adaptations for the next sprint(Malik, Ahmad & Hussain, 2019). The required members of this ceremony are the product owner, Perun, the project team, and the scrum master. However, other stakeholders can also be a part of this ceremony if they desire. This ceremony takes place at the end of each sprint for a pre-recognised time. The result of this ceremony is to show the progress of the product development to the product owner, Perun, and analyse the progress for any improvements that can be made.
Sprint Retrospective- This ceremony is held after every successful sprint, where discussions about the critical components of the success of the previous sprint happen (Werewka & Spiechowicz, 2017). Many project teams conduct this ceremony internally, but the project team responsible for creating the digital dealership product for Perun also includes the individuals representing the stakeholder's interests for the sake of clear and transparent work. It is an excellent tool for nullifying risks associated with a sprint or a product overall. It lets the product development team learn from their mistakes and strengthen their vital aspects.
b. Agile Requirements
Agile requirements are defined as the amenities, functionalities, and traits that are a necessity while developing products (Schön, Thomaschewski & Escalona, 2017). The requirements can be categorised into two groups. Functional requirements refer to the various characteristics, potential, and user stories that are developed into the product responsible for value creation for the user of the product (Kurtanovi? & Maalej, 2017). Nonfunctional requirements indulge in traits of products that are more in-depth and, as the name suggests, are not for basic customer utilities. The functional requirements of the digital dealership network of Perun are user interface design, stakeholders' integration, software system development for communication, finance for incorporating modern technological devices with the system and IT experts. However, the nonfunctional requirements related to the digital dealership network can be security, performance, effectiveness, usability and manageability. The security of the information of users during dealerships is a crucial aspect. The agile requirements for this project will be to recognise the demands of users of the products, developing a secure, easy to use interface, ensure that the platform is scalable and performs reliably, discussing backlogs and complications with the product owner, establishing transparent and clear communication and creating user stories based on the information provided by Perun.
c. Lean start-up tools used in Agile
Lean start-up tools are designed to create and deliver an empirical method of developing products and to speed up the development process of said product (Appelo, 2019). Lean start-up is a term used to signify the efficient execution of work by getting rid of waste. In agile, two main tools are used to facilitate lean start-up. These are named Kanban and Scrum. Kanban is a tool that is used worldwide for agile development (Atlassian. 2021a). It is used predominantly in software development practices because of its unmatched success in that context. The whole framework of Kanban is designed around physical and digital Kanban boards. These boards are created as a visual representation of the work of a team. The core ethics of the Kanban process is transparent and clear communication between team members.
On the other hand, Scrum focuses on creating value for the agile teams using them by offering decision-making tools for intricate problems (Karabulut, & Ergun, 2018). The core ethics of the scrum framework is dedicated and focused work with a flair for open communication. Practically, these two tools are pretty similar in application and are used by agile teams to increase productivity. Focusing upon a customer-centric approach, the company will implement lean startup combining with the agile method so that customers determine the value of products. The Google Apps tool can be a significant medium to evaluate the spreadsheets and develop a proper presentation for software development projects to create a viable digital dealership network for the company. It will help to assess the dealership details when the network delivers products to the clients of the company. However, the envelope calculations and the hypothesis board effectively manage the company's digital dealership network.
d. Agile estimation and planning
The estimate is beneficial for various aspects of a project management framework (Endjin, 2019). The agile transformation method represents the way through which a company carry out its business (Measey, 2015). The Estimations are essential for gaining important intuition and apprehension of the risks contained within executing and developing a product. The owner, investors and different stakeholders will understand the need of developing user stories for digital dealership network development for vehicle transferring and distribution. While meeting with the stakeholders, the project team members will show the user stories, which will help accomplish the project requirements. Product estimation will be done by splitting the product backlog items into several small tasks, which will estimate the sprint planning in the digital dealership network development process. A proper estimate and planning process can be used as a risk mitigation technique in this context. For example, the product owner Perun wants to obtain a digital dealership platform in order to increase the range of its services. The team in charge of the project can create an estimate about the time of delivery, needed financial resources and human resources, needed technological assistance, and so on. While estimating, the team will come up with all sorts of hypothetical difficulties that are relevant to the development and execution of the project. By informing the product owner company Perun, about these potential risks, the team can take precautionary measures to prevent and avoid the potential risks. Planning poker, t-shirt sizes, dot voting, bucket system, large/uncertain/small, affinity mapping, and ordering methods are some of the most used techniques (Mallidi & Sharma, 2021). The repeatable process of agile will help the team to foster continuous improvement in software system development for digital dealership networks.
e. Agile velocity
Velocity is one of the fundamental elements of an Agile methodology. Agile velocity refers to the amount of work that has been done by the project team concerning a given period (Khuat & Le, 2018). It is a crucial but straightforward measuring tool that lets the development team and the stakeholders of the product gauge the progress of the development process. In this case, the project team reports to the product owner company Perun each week about their progress in each sprint. A measure of Agile Velocity for that specific sprint or period is shown to the product owners in that reporting session. The work completed in each sprint is measured by the user stories and engineer hours of the team in that week, while the timeframe is the entire duration of that sprint. For determining the velocity, the six user stories of the project will be divided into three story points, which will help identify the total story points. The total number of sprints is six, which will help to calculate the velocity. Total story points will be divided by the sprint numbers to determine the velocity. It will indicate how much effort is needed by the team to carry out the work divided into every sprint to accomplish the project of digital dealership network development.
f. Scaling Agile after initial success
The project team working on developing the digital dealership platform of the company Perun must practice scaling their agile workflow in preparation for the successful launch. For scaling the Agile, the company needs to recruit more individuals that will prove beneficial for the team. With scaling agile, new responsibilities are created. These responsibilities can be taken up by being motivated, dedicated, and have vision (Haan, 2018). The process of scaling will help the team to understand how their collaborative approach can deliver the project outcome within an estimated time. Agile ways of working promote flexibility in the work process. Initial success will encourage the team to work with motivation. It will specify the errors in digital dealership network development so that they can plan specific methodology which will facilitate the process of product distribution within the customers through the digital dealership network. However, the scaling process will facilitate cultural changes in the team, which will improve the cooperation level and will focus upon the goal of managing and streamlining the process of buying cars. The team working on the agile project will need to be provided incentives for collaborating and need to learn from the mistakes and positive contributions that were made in the development of the project before the success of the product. The project team needs to evaluate the initial success to assess the areas in demand for implementing agile scaling. With the help of this approach, Perun can quickly transform its business to the aspect of a digital dealership.
g. Release planning and cadence
Setting a proper cadence for the development of this product is needed to adjust the duration of each task and sprint related to the project. The main elements of cadence are providing a set duration and predicting the end date of sprints (Geb, 2018). The release planning will help the team to define the reason behind developing the digital dealership network. Planning for the pace at which the product will roll out and full release planning is fundamental to the success of an agile project. A clear vision will help the team to rank the product backlog and understand the features required for developing a digital dealership network. The purpose of release planning is to distribute various tasks related to the incremental release into shorter periods. A compilation of the results obtained in these sprints or periods will be the final product that launches as the digital distribution platform for Perun. The incremental release is needed for products such as the launch of a digital dealership platform because of the various issues if a full launch is attempted. Roadmap development to meet the project outcomes through reviewing the agile velocity and scheduling iterations will be possible through finalising the product release calendar. Moreover, the team will set a sprint cadence, which will help to divide the work of digital dealership network development properly.
Conclusion
The discussion above is based on the importance of different aspects and requirements of Agile methodology in developing a product. Perun is the client automotive company's subsidiary that specialises in manufacturing, designing, and selling an electronic motor vehicle. The company Perun has required the assistance of the project team. The product that is being developed is a digital dealership network by using the trained staff that works at the main company. However, these employees were working under a more traditional method in the primary company. The popular waterfall approach was adopted in the main company, and this approach is useless in developing digital dealership networks. That is why an Agile approach of working is created and suggested to the new company Perun in order to help it perform optimally and efficiently. An agile project team has been allowed to develop this product. The report provides a detailed description of the requirements and elements of Agile methodology used by the project team to efficiently and effectively create the effect. The planning procedures, scalability, velocity of the agile development, and the intended cadence is also recorded in the report, Proper research has been done to support the claims made in this report, and appropriate references have been attached. Hence, it can be concluded that Perun needs to engage all of its stakeholders in order to transform its business into a digital dealership.
References
Ahmad, M. O., Lenarduzzi, V., Oivo, M., & Taibi, D. (2018, September). Lessons learned on communication channels and practices in agile software development. In 2018 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS) (pp. 929-938). IEEE. https://annals-csis.org/Volume_15/drp/pdf/72.pdf
Appelo, J. (2019). Startup, scaleup, screwup: 42 tools to accelerate lean & agile business growth. John Wiley & Sons. INSERT-MISSING-URL.
Atlassian. (2021b). The product backlog: your ultimate to-do list | Atlassian. Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/backlogs#:~:text=A%20product%20backlog%20is%20a,knows%20what%20to%20deliver%20first.
Endjin. (2019). A beginner's guide to agile estimation and planning. Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://endjin.com/blog/2019/02/a-beginners-guide-to-agile-estimation-and-planning.
Geb, M. (2018). Sprint – Cadence – Iteration. What’s the difference?. Software Plant. Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://softwareplant.com/sprint-cadence-iteration/.
Haan, J. (2018). How to scale agile: 6 keys to success. InfoWorld. Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://www.infoworld.com/article/3270942/how-to-scale-agile-6-keys-to-success.html.
Julian, M. B., Ian, K. A., & Udayan, B. (2018). Agile method tailoring in a CMMI level 5 organisation. Journal of International Technology and Information Management, 22(4). INSERT-MISSING-URL.
Kanban - A brief introduction. Atlassian. (2021a). Retrieved 5 August 2021, from https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban.
Karabulut, A. T., & Ergun, E. (2018). A new way of management: A scrum management. International Journal of Commerce and Finance, 4(2), 108-117. http://ijcf.ticaret.edu.tr/index.php/ijcf/article/download/94/72
Khuat, T. T., & Le, M. H. (2018). A novel hybrid abc-pso algorithm for effort estimation of software projects using agile methodologies. Journal of Intelligent Systems, 27(3), 489-506. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:KoZEcVdiY50J:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2017&scillfp=2001703119009501233&oi=lle
Kurtanovi?, Z., & Maalej, W. (2017, September). Automatically classifying functional and nonfunctional requirements using supervised machine learning. In 2017 IEEE 25th International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE) (pp. 490-495). Ieee. https://mast.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017_RE_DataChallenge_NFR_Classification_preprint.pdf
Malik, R. S., Ahmad, S. S., & Hussain, M. T. H. (2019, March). A Review of Agile Methodology in IT Projects. In Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Advanced Computing and Software Engineering (ICACSE). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3351064
Mallidi, R. K., & Sharma, M. (2021). Study on Agile Story Point Estimation Techniques and Challenges. International Journal of Computer Applications, 975, 8887. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ravi-Kiran-Mallidi/publication/348545576_Study_on_Agile_Story_Point_Estimation_Techniques_and_Challenges/links/60b48805299bf1f6d5881ca7/Study-on-Agile-Story-Point-Estimation-Techniques-and-Challenges.pdf
Measey, P. (Ed.). (2015). Agile foundation: principles, practices and frameworks. BCS. INSERT-MISSING-URL.
Pantiuchina, J., Mondini, M., Khanna, D., Wang, X., & Abrahamsson, P. (2017, May). Are software startups applying agile practices? The state of the practice from a large survey. In International Conference on Agile Software Development (pp. 167-183). Springer, Cham. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/27861/1002143.pdf?sequence=1#page=178
Schön, E. M., Thomaschewski, J., & Escalona, M. J. (2017). Agile Requirements Engineering: A systematic literature review. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 49, 79-91. https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/88292/Agile%20Requirements%20Engineering.pdf
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