players and the chances for a successful project. You cannot play ice hockey with bumpy ice!
We help the teams Transform their development processes into Agile ones by:
3. Team training - To successfully adopt Agile practices in an engagement, all key stakeholders (users, developers and business sponsors) must have a sound understanding of Agile practices and principles. The Agile Workshop provides an in-depth understanding of Agile practices and principals to build common ground within an engagement team.
4. Process Tailoring - This is one of the most important steps. The base framework is tailored to the project needs based on the team's inputs and the risks identified by the suitability assessment. The team commits to the agreed process approach and agrees to refine it based on retrospective findings.
During project execution, we Optimize the Agile approach by:
5. Continuous Coaching - Providing continuous coaching, since practicing Agile techniques requires a major change in team member mindset. During the initial iterations of a new Agile project, teams typically face many challenges adjusting to the new way of working. The support of a hands-on coach is vital to smooth transition to an Agile approach, especially in a distributed team environment. We provide hands-on support and guidance for teams to quickly overcome hurdles and grow competence in Agile practices.
6. Implementation Review - A timely review of how the methodology and practices are helping the project is vital for the success of Agile adoption. We continuously evaluate and refine the approach based on project performance and feedback from the team and client.
Conclusion
While Agile practices deliver significant advantages in the right context, they also contribute to project failure when the practices are applied in the wrong context. Successful adoption of Agile practices depends on many factors. Large numbers of these factors are related to the ‘mind set' than specific process. We believe Agile adoption success depends 60% having the right supporting mindset and 40% on actual technicalities of Agile practices. Agile is a not a panacea for all challenges related to modern software delivery.
An organization which is looking to adopt Agile practices in a global delivery model must seriously consider a structured approach to define the Agile framework and adoption along with suitability assessment, which will assist in understanding risks and benefits of adopting Agile practices.
About the Authors
Madu Ratnayake heads Software Engineering Process Quality for Virtusa worldwide, and Virtusa's Advance Technology Center in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Madu has over 14 years of experience in global IT service delivery, quality processes and operations management. He has been a member of Virtusa's management team from its inception.
Madu holds a Bachelors Degree in Software Engineering from City University, London, and a Masters in Business Administration from the Post Graduate Institute of Management in Sri Lanka. While at City University he received the Addison-Wesley Prize in Computer Science in 1996, the Scott Prize in 1993 and the 1992 Robert Kitchin Award for performance. He is also a gold medalist in Management Research from the Post Graduate Institute of Management, Sri Lanka.
Valarmathy Rangasamy is the Lead Agile Champion for Virtusa, and leads the Virtusa Agile practice globally. She has over 11 years experience in the software development industry as a software engineer, analyst and project manager with a broad range of assignments for leading global clients.
Valar has a passion for Agile practices, and her interest lies in consulting for global engagement teams in leveraging Agile practices to improve quality, productivity and collaboration in distributed development settings. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from
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