Home > Ask the Software Quality Experts > Software Process Models and Methodologies Questions & Answers > Agile software development: Proving the benefits
Ask The Software Quality Expert: Questions & Answers
EMAIL THIS

Agile software development: Proving the benefits

Bas de Baar EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Bas de Baar

Pose a Question
Other Software Quality Categories
Meet all Software Quality Experts
Become an Expert for this site


Software quality news and advice
Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us    Add to Google


>
QUESTION POSED ON: 02 April 2007
Our company is exploring the potential of going agile for software development. While I and others here completely understand the benefits of doing so, convincing the business of investing in our transformation is proving somewhat harder. I can find many references from other companies stating that they have seen direct benefits but this is never supported with hard data. We are planning to run a series of pilots to demonstrate to ourselves the benefits, but I need to get hold of industry benchmark data that I can use to present a business case back to my organization. Do you have any clues or suggestions which can help?


Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us    Add to Google


RELATED CONTENT
Software Process Models and Methodologies
Differentiating between Functional and Nonfunctional Requirements
Where does quality assurance fit in agile development?
The role of user stories in agile software development
Agile development across continents
How long should an iteration be?
Is iterative development a new process?

Agile software development
Agile development growing, but problems remain
Agile, IBM tools boost Merge Healthcare's software quality
Agile development reshaping requirements
Agile software development tutorial: How to transition to agile
Agile software development tutorial: Pros and cons of agile
Agile software development tutorial: Agile requirements gathering
Agile software development tutorial: Agile project management, tools
Agile software development tutorial: Agile testing
Reporter's Notebook: Jack Vaughan on agile methodology
Best practices for moving testers from waterfall to agile development

Scrum software development
Agile development growing, but problems remain
Turning agile skeptics to believers at Blueprint Systems
How Covad made the switch to a distributed agile development process
Can traditional project management and agile development coexist?
How teams transition to agile development methodologies
Agile methodology benefits software outsourcing providers
Big Blue dog learns new tricks: How IBM Software Group moved to agile
Agile development: It isn't just for small projects
Suggestions for scaling agile
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship, Chapter 1 -- What Is Clean Code?

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS
Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary
acceptance test  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
iteration  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
planning board  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
planning game  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
release  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
release plan  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
spike  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
stand-up  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
story  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)
timebox  (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)

RELATED RESOURCES
2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems
Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts
Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary


There is not much real hard data publicly available that shows benefits of using agile software development approaches. The data that is available doesn't bring you much either; what use is a statement that company X had a productivity increase after introducing Scrum? Who knows if the circumstances are comparable with yours? Who knows what other factors contributed to the sudden increase?

Running the pilot projects is, in my opinion, the way to proof its benefits. However, before plunging into the water, consider what your current problems are; try to express them in metrics like productivity, number of bugs found, time to market, user acceptance. Define the root causes for your most prominent problems, explain how agile would solve them, and after the pilot compare historic metrics with the new ones. That is what you need to convince management.

Oversimplified example: the time between software finished and user acceptance is too long. Cause: users see the software late in the process. Agile solution: close and early user involvement. You can measure the time it takes between completion and the formal acceptance. Should be better.

Of course, this is a very simple example, but keep in mind: every technique tries to solve a problem; if you don't have that problem, introducing the technique will not improve anything. Define the problem, define the metric, explain and implement the correct technique or method, and compare the metrics.

More information:




Search and Browse the Expert Answer Center
Search and browse more than 25,000 question and answer pairs from more than 250 TechTarget industry experts.
Browse our Expert Advice



Software Quality - Software Maintenance, Software Requirements, Software Standards
About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
SEARCH 
TechTarget provides technology professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective purchase decisions and managing their organizations' technology projects - with its network of technology-specific websites, events and online magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2006 - 2009, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts