Wednesday, June 20, 2012

How To Deploy Agile Framework Effectively

The software development trend is changing these days adopting different approach/methodologies over traditional methods like Waterfall model. Agile Framework has been an very effective methodology and has given proven results by various software organizations and several organizations are switching to an agile way of executing the software programs. In this post I want to talk about how to deploy the agile method of software development in a team that is following waterfall model for several years. In fact agile has several advantages in terms of organizational benefits and employee benefits. The challenge is in effectively deploying the framework. There are certain obstacles in changing the way that people do things on a day to day basis.

Study the current situation

Analyze the current situation in the sense that what's going wrong. Study the customer opinions about the software services that are being served to them. Study the stories of how the software programs are being executed. Interview as many people as possible including the management and asses the situation. This is required because any change must happen for a reason and the reason must be carefully understood. It may so happen that after assessing the current situation, we may conclude that the current methodology is doing well and there is no need for change. Find out if there is any support from the management for deploying the change. Everyone's support is a must and if not, better do not take the risk.

Train the people

There is learning curve involved. Everyone should be trained to learn the agile framework as to what is involved and how the new changes will actually work. Its very obvious that people must be trained on agile framework. People need to understand each every aspect of agile methodology. Training should be comprised of team exercises to better understand how agile is going work.

Change people mindset

This is the prerequisite for any change that an organizations wants to have and is a toughest challenge. Remember that "There is no process that can change people". Attempt to have a process to change people will fail for sure. Its all about people themselves who can change. It is just that there has to be a platform and a motivation for the people to change. Everything happens for a reason and the reasons must be very well explained to the people and convinced to the people. If people do not change their mindsets, nothing is going to change. The true fact.

Change the team structure

This is very essential. In a typical agile methodology, the team is small usually 8 to 9 members. Need to reorganize the team in such a way that the people are comfortable with one another. This can be found by observing the day to day activities of people, who is comfortable with whom. Basically the frequencies must be matched. And the team structure should not be changed. Over the long term the team adjusts itself to understand and help one another to accomplishing the tasks, sprints if I want to say in agile way. There should not be any concept of "reporting managers". Its all just developers and no managers delegating work and tracking instead its the individuals who are responsible for a given task to complete and deliver.

Explain motivational factors often

Once all set to deploy the new methodology, the people may start feeling not comfortable at the initial stage and may tend to go back to the old method of doing things (Scrum bugs). Well, this may happen because people have settled with one method over many years and are already comfortable and to get away with this obstacle, motivate people by repeating the benefits/results that people will be getting over the long term.

Answer people questions

Yes, there will be lots of questions that each one will be asking and they must be answered satisfactorily. Give real time examples for each question.  Tell people that we are not alone. If there are proven results adopting agile framework, then why can't we get benefited out of it. This can happen with an agile expert who has actually gone through all the obstacles that were arisen and successfully resolved them.

Conclusion

As I highlighted its the matter of changing the people mindset, a toughest challenge that we have in deploying any new methodology. People must be coached(by scrum masters), motivated often and regular rhythm has to be maintained. There is no any official methodology to adopt a new methodology. So it depends on the current situations and the reasons for change. A change can best happen by an external person in my opinion, So hiring an agile expert and having him/her in the organization is good idea.  

Monday, June 18, 2012

How To Save Money Taking Advantage Of Technology

I was traveling to my home town. The person next to my seat was traveling to the same native place as that of me. We just happen to talk to each other. Since our style of speaking was the same, we had an interesting conversation. The conversation topic goes about recent hike in the travel tickets. He asked me "how much did you pay for the travel ticket today?" I said Rs 520/-. He surprisingly said he paid RS 550/- for the same ticket. I asked "Where did you book your travel ticket?" He answered "I booked through an agent as usual". Well, there goes the difference. My co-traveler booked his ticket through an agent whereas I did through internet and saved RS 30/-. This shows there are opportunities to save few bucks in everything that we do. We need to give a thought before pay the money. In this post I will share some tips on how to save money exploiting the technologies that we have today.

Avoid approaching agents

Agents are intermediate people between seller and a buyer. People reach agents because they do not know detailed information about the products that they want to purchase. The real-estate business is flooded with agents called brokers and they earn good brokerage. Today the real-estate business has become easy with many advertising means over the internet and news papers. People looking for buying/renting a house can look out for advertises posted directly by house owners. Be careful that brokers too advertise. Look for who has advertized before going forward with the advertisement. Take help of your friends. How many friends you have on your Facebook? Certainly at least one friend of you will be knowing information about what you are looking for and ready to help you out.

Sometimes it so happens that we approach agents because we wanted get things done quickly. We do not have time. So plan what you want to purchase bit advance and you can do that by yourself than paying brokerage.

Purchase products online.

Well, how did you purchase your cellphone? By visiting a cellphone store? In my experience prices are different in different stores. I still do not understand why is that. Instead buy online through a trusted website. The websites have many options and "compare products" feature is very useful especially because we have many brands of products and you will be in a dilemma that what brand to go for. Are the reviews on products real? The answer is Yes and No. Do not completely reply on reviews. There are chances in today's internet era that people would have been paid to write reviews. Think twice before you trust the product reviews.

Recharge your phone online.

I do this and save few bucks every time I recharge my phone at my comfortable time and place . This not only saves money but also time. Today almost all service operators provide the option of recharging the prepaid mobile online just use that for recharging your mobile phone.

Earn reward points using your card.

Certain banks provide this option, your credit card earns points every time you make a purchase. Use petrol card for filling your petrol tank. Over the long term, you save money. Withdraw money from ATM of your bank than different bank ATM and earn the rewards. Hey, my words are looking like advertisements that you receive from our banks, right? Well, we hear this kind of advertisements, I am just saying think if you can save using those.

Use Internet for your phone calls/Text messaging.

Why make calls, if you can talk to your friends through internet? Use internet software such as Gmail (low call rates), Skype a free phone call software based on Voice Over IP. Send free internet text messaging service than texting through your phone.

These are all just the hints on saving money.  There are several such opportunities in our day to day activities we can save money. Only thing is that we need to look for them. If you know such tips you share the same.
 
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