Agile methods began as a revolution against traditional heavyweight software development approaches. In the last decade, a wide variety of agile, evolutionary, and lean methods have blossomed in the global software development community. In this interactive tutorial we will sort out the varieties of agile approaches, note their plusses and minuses, consider when to use them, and consider how to handle their challenges. We will also look and some simple new methods for improving the aim of agile at customers with Blitz QFD. Finally, we will also consider some post-agile options as agile becomes mainstream, and counter-revolutionary methods develop.

Approach

In the first part of this tutorial, the basics agile methods will be surveyed. The emphasis will be on understanding why various varieties were developed, and their strengths and weaknesses. Participants will learn about the wide range of agile techniques, and how and when they can be used. Come prepared to discuss what your own organization is doing, or considering doing, with agile.
The concept of delivering value to customers frequently is fundamental to every agile approach. But even with direct interaction with customers, value can be difficult to define, much less deliver. In the second part of this tutorial the basics of Blitz QFD, a subset of modern Quality Function Deployment (QFD) specifically developed for rapid analysis of value, will be presented. Blitz QFD provides a better way to define value to customer, and create customer satisfaction. In this way, existing agile approaches can be better aimed at satisfying customers, making them more efficient and more productive. This can also be applied as a diagnostic tool on existing projects, both agile and conventional.

Objectives

• Introduce the basic concepts of agile approaches so participants can make informed choices about agile methods, and can see how to improve their existing use of agile
• Understand how agile delivers a return on investment by a continuing delivery of value
• Discuss challenges of agile methods, and how to deal with them
• Understand how agile methods deal with uncertainty and risk
• Apply Blitz QFD to focus any agile approach to better deliver value and satisfy customers
• Discuss the challenges of quality assurance and testing in agile environments
• Consider post-agile options for software development
  

Key Concepts

• What are agile, iterative, incremental, evolutionary, and lean methods?
• Strengths and Weaknesses of agile approaches, and countermeasures
• Aiming agile at customers: value and customer needs
• Iterations, timeboxes, teams, and the power of the individual
• Improving at agile: What should we try, and it is better?
• Integrating agile with other methods

Delivery Method

This tutorial is an interactive discussion, with dialogues and exercises using real examples and situations raised by participants. Participants are urged to bring a current (or proposed) agile project mission or description, or problems they face on current agile projects.

Dr. Richard Zultner is a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Agile Software Development & Project Management Practice and a contributor to its Advisory Service. He is the founder and director of the QFD Institute, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to the advancement of quality function deployment (QFD). His primary area of focus is efficient software process improvement approaches, including theory of constraints (TOC), daily management methods such as statistical process control, and cross-functional management techniques such as QFD.

He received the Akao Prize in 1998 for his work in applying QFD to software. He is an international consultant, educator, author, and speaker and has professional certifications in quality, software quality, project management, software engineering, and TOC.