Sample MIS608 Agile Project Management Report 1

MIS608 Agile Project Management Report Sample

Task Summary

You are required to write an individual research report of 1500 words to demonstrate your understanding of the origins and foundations of Agile by addressing the following areas:

1. The origins of Agile – why did Agile emerge, what was it in response to, and how did this lead to the values and principles as outlined in the agile manifesto?

2. The origins of Lean and how it has influenced Agile practice

3. The similarities and differences between Scrum and Kanban as work methods

4. Why adopting Agile benefits an organization.

Please refer to the Task Instructions for details on how to complete this task.

Task Instructions

1. Write a 1500 words research report to demonstrate your understanding of the origins and foundations of Agile by addressing the following areas:

• The origins of Agile – why did Agile emerge, what was it in response to, and how did this lead to the values and principles as outlined in the agile manifesto?

• The origins of Lean and how it has influenced Agile practice.

• The similarities and differences between Scrum and Kanban as work methods.

• Why adopting Agile benefits an organisation.

2. Review your subject notes to establish the relevant area of investigation that applies to the case. Perform additional research in the area of investigation and select FIVE (5) additional sources which will add value to your report in the relevant area of investigation.

3. Plan how you will structure your ideas for the report. Write a report plan before you start writing. The report should be 1500 words. Therefore, it does not require an executive summary nor an abstract.

4. The report should consist of the following structure:

A title page with subject code and name, assignment title, student’s name, student number, and lecturer’s name.

The introduction (100 – 150 words) that 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

The body of the report (1200-1300 words) will need to cover four specific areas:

a) Why did Agile originate? When did it emerge and what was it in response to? How did this lead to the four values and 12 principles that are outline by the agile manifesto?

b) Where did Lean originate? Briefly define what Lean is and two Lean philosophies
have been adopted in the evolution of Agile practice?

c) Scrum and Kanban have many similarities, but also key differences. Compare and contrast Scrum and Kanban with each other, illustrating these similarities and differences with examples.

d) Explain what value adopting Agile can offer to an organisation.
The conclusion (100-150 words) will summarise any findings or recommendations that the report puts forward regarding the concepts covered in the report.

5. Format of the report

The report should use font Arial or Calibri 11 point, be line spaced at 1.5 for ease of reading, and have page numbers on the bottom of each page. If diagrams or tables are used, due attention should be given to pagination to avoid loss of meaning and continuity by unnecessarily splitting information over two pages. Diagrams must carry the appropriate captioning.

6. Referencing

There are requirements for referencing this report using APA referencing style. It is expected that you reference any lecture notes used and five additional sources in the relevant subject area based on readings and further research.

Solution

Introduction

The business enterprises are always facing changes in the external environment and adopting an agile approach in project development helps them respond to change effectively. Understanding of concepts like Scrum, agile, lean and Kanban will; be helpful for proceeding in this subject. For Assignment Help In this paper the agile and its origin and how the agile manifesto was formed are discussed in depth. Along with this the audience will read in the body of this report more discussions about lean, scrum and Kanban concepts used in software development. Such in-depth knowledge will not just help pupils in software development but also can be used in other areas in workplaces in future.

Agile, its Origination & Events that led to the Agile Manifesto

The agile method had originated in the industry of software development much before the manifesto was formed (Nadeem & Lee, 2019, p. 963). Most software development projects which were conducted previous to the agile manifesto formation were taking a very long time for finishing them. An innovative, new and effective approach was necessary by the industry and the consumers. In the early 1990s the industry of software development faced crisis of application delays or lags. The time used to fulfill the need of an application in the market was huge. Thirty years back one had to wait for years for solving a problem in the business of software development, production, and aerospace and in defense. The waterfall method was first manifested in this time where all phases were defined clearly in lifecycle of a project. As its name suggests it is a process where teams will finish one step completely and then start doing the next (Chari & Agrawal, 2018, p. 165). When a stage in such projects was completed it would be frozen for a very long time too. This method was not effective at all. Rarely did a software development project experience stability of the same kind. The need towards iterative development began because the teams needed to conduct activities, measure them, make change as needed and again improve.

Many software developers out of frustrated began making changes to their approach of development during the 1990s. Different methods such as Scrum, DSDM, Rapid Application Development or RAD emerged during this time. A group of software engineers met in year 2001 at Utah at a ski resort with an intention to solve problems such as delays in project delivery or bridging the disparities between expectations and delivered products. There was a pressing need to ensure that the software development time was less and the product reached the end user faster. Two things were identified in this conference. First, delay shortening will make products market fit and secondly with faster feedback from the consumer the teams can make continuous betterment of the products. Within a year from this conference meet the developers met again and formed the agile manifesto. The manifesto has laid out values and principles which gave the industry of software development a new traction and power (Hohl et al., 2018, p.1).

Origination of Lean Methodology

The lean as per history began much before the era where software development first began. Lean rather initiated itself in the Japanese factory of Toyota which used to make automobiles. In the year 1950s and in the 1960s Taiichi Ohno had developed TPS or the Toyota Production System and aimed to enhance the loss and enhance sustainable means of automobile production. Visual signals were utilized for producing the inventory as was needed. This was technically known as a just in time production process and it focused primarily over minimizing the wastage and optimizing all the production processes. Manufacturers in the west were struggling to be at par with the speed of manufacturing by Japanese organizations and hence soon they began using lean manufacturing processes (Rafique et al., 2019, p. 386). The lean guiding principles made easier implementation and major IT companies began adopting it as a result.

Lean can be defined as an approach of management which is supporting the continuous improvement model. The process aims in organizing the human actions for delivering value and eliminating waste.

There are many similarities in the concepts of agile and lean thinking. Blending the philosophies of lean into agile innovative work processes is formed. By blending the best of these two methodologies businesses are moving faster and developing better quality and forming healthy and sustainable work environments. Two philosophies of the lean methodology are used in agile practices.

Build-measure and learn: The build, measure and learn principle used in lean methodology is used in the agile (Kane, 2020, p. 1561). The agile and its iterative approach is based on this very lean principle which encourages testing, measurement and validation on the basis of past work and market trends. The lean always focuses on finding the way which offers maximum value to the customer.

Waste elimination: The philosophy of lean to eliminate waste is adopted in agile. Teams in agile pulls the work which is of the highest priority and they iterate and delivers it progressively. Continuously they are learning and improving to see that nothing is unused or wasted.

Scrum and Kanban Point of Similarities

Kanban is a methodology used for the optimization and management of the workflow where one can visualize the entire processes with the aid of tools such as the Kanban Board and teams can work continuously. The Scrum methodology is another framework used where in-depth and restrictive planning is of importance. There are many similar characteristics in between the Scrum and the Kanban. These popular methodologies are used in many organizations. Following are the point of similarities which are observed between them:

1. The methodologies are lean as well as agile in their approach.
2. The goal in these methods is also to restrict the work in progress.
3. They both use the pull scheduling for moving work faster.
4. Scrum and Kanban both breaks the work down.
5. Both these methods are focused on teams which are organised.
6. Software targeted by both these methodologies is reusable in nature.
7. Both the methodologies utilises transparency as a tool to process the continuous improvement (Lei, Ganjeizadeh, Jayachandran, et al., 2017, p. 59).

Scrum and Kanban Point of Differences

Agile advantages to the enterprise

A large number of organizations are moving towards agile development as it offers an environment which is evolving constantly.

Beat competition: The consumers, regulators and the business partners all have needs which are pressing. Stakeholders in business demand products and services which help them beat competition (Mckew, 2018, p. 22). This involves fast changing goals, quick restructuring and team adaptability.

Integrate innovation: Moreover with an agile approach organizations can encourage used of new technologies which helps them enhance their overall efficiency and performance (Potdar Routroy, S., & Behera, 2017, p. 2022).

Stakeholder engagement: Before the sprint process, during the process and after the sprint the stakeholders collaborate. With working software released to the client in intervals makes the entire tam come together with a shared goal in mind. Such teams display high involvement in the enterprise in general.

Forecast delivery better: In agile progress of the project is significant. At times the companies even make beta release of the software thus increasing the overall value of the business. Agile use can provide the team an opportunity for make delivery predictions accurately which satisfies the customer.

Element of transparency: The agile use gives organization the golden opportunity to work with the consumer during the development phase. The customer is aware of the features of the product being developed and gives feedback (Kalenda, Hyna & Rossi, 2018, p. 30). All the parties engaged in the development process in agile enjoys a high level of awareness and transparency.

Change opportunities: Due to the iterative approach of agile there are ample scopes for making changes. Minimum resistance comes from the workforce because they are already accustomed with the element of change.

Conclusion

The world is going through a major digital shift. Businesses in every industry are integrating new technologies and processes. Staying forefront to changing environment is important for survival. The concepts showcased in this paper about agile and used of its values and principles are indeed valuable for businesses. It is recognized that agile is the most suitable methodology which can be applied to projects, product development and also to man power management. Through agile, mangers can detect problems, find solutions and implement them fast. A recommendation to such dynamic thinking where more importance is given over solutions will no doubt helps enterprise achieve sustainable success.

References