17 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2016
    1. We noticed that this increment in productivity was a consequence of the student s’ involvement in the planning, estimation and controlactivities in each sprint. This practice reinforced the commitment and the responsibility of each student and favored the leaders’ development, which also contributed to motivate the team.

      This is gold to keep your employees. We moved away from giving foosball and pool tables, remote work or shares. Millennials are transcending the vertical hierarchy. The Age of Information requires respect of the intellectual self.

    2. they produced products which had very different functional sizes: from almost similar to that of a RUP product, to three times, or even seven times, bigger than that of a RUP product

      The Agile teams enter a "zone" or "flow" of releasing products.

    3. Agile teams began to work in programing tasks no later than in the fifth week, but the RUP teams began to do so between the fifteenth and nineteenth week

      As a stakeholder, you can test and adjust your product within 5 weeks vs. 15-19 weeks. How is that not a competitive advantage in tech?

    4. the more people there were on a team, the more coordination problems they had

      Was there a number defined as the sweet spot of Agile team size?

    5. the personal attitude of a person in a certain situation may lead the other members to enhance some of their own personal characteristics, thus resulting in the whole group improving its behavior

      Very true. How could further analysis be designed to avoid this affecting the test groups?

    6. evidence about obtaining higher productivity by using Agile methods

      If higher productivity came from including stakeholders in the frequent development releases, running a complementary scrum team on UX analysis should lead to improvement in quality.

    7. They found out that all the teams understood their assigned processes, but the RUP teams were more successful in applying the method. However, the RUP teams were significantly more likely to say that they would have preferred to use XP rather than their assigned process, which is exactly what was said by the students that participated in our empirical study.

      RUP teams where more successful in applying the method or in delivering results? Meaning the status quo is easier to do than implementing/learning SCRUM/Agile...? Yet while they knew they were doing well, they still wished they could have done SCRUM. Why?

    8. they used a plan-driven process to compare the software qualityassurance processes and software defects of such project during a 17-month phase, which was then followed by a 20-month phase,

      This is normal if the team was learning SCRUM for the first time. There is a ramp-up period where the team might actually be slower and less productive while adapting to SCRUM/AGILE. I'd love to know more here.

    9. Another example of geographically distributed development using SCRUM was reported, but this time, a team of 4 persons did not get a significant productivity improvement, if compared to the previous phase of their project, in which a waterfall process had been applied

      Could it be that different tools are needed to SCRUM remotely? By example, if the issue is timezones for daily standup meetings, could a system records and displays everyone's "What I did yesterday? What I'm doing today? Do I have any blockers?" as it gets filled up. Said system would manage the timezone disconnect for teams whom's work hours span across days. i.e. My late work nights might have me work at the same time but different "Sprint Day" than a colleague in China.

    10. Nevertheless, we also found out that a later systematic review based on twenty eight very good papers [7] found evidence of the increase in productivity when using the SCRUM method.
    11. constant testing provides a rapid feedback, thus making the early introduction of improvements possible.

      UX Design requires the ability to experience said design. This means that once a concept/feature is implemented, the team can test the "MVP" of said concept/feature and adjust it prior to building upon it or developing the next concept/feature.

      With the bicycle example, this means I would test my wheel hub, frame, spokes prior to caring about testing a tube and tire. And I wouldn't wait to have the entire bicycle assembled to do said testing.

    12. software life cycle of their products may be described as waterfall or spiral, and the testing is most surely performed at the end of the cycle

      Would really ride a bicycle without having properly tested each components? Would you try to ride the bike without knowing if the wheels or the frame can support your weight? Would you do gown a hill without ensuring the brakes work first?

    13. systems are fully specified, they are predictable and they are built according to meticulous and extensive planning

      By example, building a car after your prototype is approved, or baking a cake, you follow a recipe and know that if you follow the recipe, results should be fairly similar, nothing changed. Flour doesn't "feel" different than anticipated.

    1. Moreover,wefoundotheroutcomessuchasproductquality,clientsatisfaction,costreductionandteammotivation,whicharenotnecessarilyrelatedtoproductivitybutrepresentgeneralsuccesscharacteristicsinsoftwaredevelopment projects.

      Team happiness should be the driving factor, without a motivated, driven team, the product and company will suffer. When employees are unhappy, they check out or check for other opportunities. Losing staff means you lose all the time invested in training these employees and they leave with whatever expertise they developed (may that be expertise on the project or historically knowing the company).

    1. One of the core features of Scrum, and what makes it so potentially powerful, is the idea of iteration and improvement. This is in regards to both the product being worked on, and the efficiency of the team itself.

      Practice makes perfect. In order to have a great product, you need to be able to polish each piece a lot. Incremental progress / development allows that.

    2. projects that were behind schedule and over budget

      Everyone's worst nightmare.