Agile practices adoption: A reality check in small and medium software

development enterprises

Adriana NettoFelipe MendesFernanda BurmannMarcos Lopez RegoVictor Braga

Agenda

1 Introdution

2 Metodology

3 Outcome Analysis

4 Conclusion and Recomendations

Introdution

Goals

What are the main practices used in small and midsize software development organizations?

1

For the context (small and medium sized companies): are agile practices already highly used?

2

Literature Review

Agile Project ManagementThe agile project management approach is based upon a set of principles,which aim to make the process of project management simpler,flexible and iterative, in order to obtain better results in performance(time, cost and quality), less effort in management, higher levels ofinnovation and earned value to the customer (Amaral et al, 2011).

Traditional Project Managementa set of techniques that support the activities execution and control ofprojects to improve strategic decisions to be taken (Eder, 2012).

Project Management PracticesPractice is a specific type of professional or management activity that contributes to the execution of a process and that may employ one or more techniques and tools (PMI, 2008).

Method

Method

Step 1

• Definition ofPractice

Step 2

• Selecting the practice

Step 3

• Create and apply the survey

Step 4

• Analyze thedata

Criteria and Results Actions techniques Tools

Initial Practices list 86 128 98

Final Practices list 23 54 21

Among the 54 techniques, we excluded since 6 served to both methodologies (agile and traditional)).

Survey apply through web with total of 56 respondents

Analysis of results

Analysis of resultsRespondents Profile

Experience Job Position

PMP? Using Agile?

Analysis of resultsOutcome (Ranking)

Top 10

Analysis of ResultsTop 10 e Bottom 10

# Techniques Type % use

1 Modelo / Template T 85,11%

2 Reunião de Revisão do

Sprint (Sprint Review

Meeting)

A 84,78%

3 Estimar por comparação A 83,02%

4 Entrevista T 83,02%

5 Product Backlog A 81,63%

6 Estimar por analogia T 80,77%

7 Análise de desempenho A 78,00%

8 Dinâmica de grupo T 75,47%

9 Sprint Backlog A 75,00%

10 Análise de alternativas T 75,00%

# Techniques Type % use

1Feature cards

A52,27%

2

Product Vision Box

A

51,35%

3Análise de reservas

T51,22%

4Intervalos de medidas

A51,02%

5 Método da corrente crítica T 48,65%

6 Técnica de Estimativa dos

Três Pontos

T

44,44%

7Bill of Material

A43,59%

8Stoplight Reports

T42,11%

9 Delphi Technique T 35,29%

10Chartering

T35,14%

Bottom 10

It can be observed that there is a balance in use (or non-use) traditional techniques and agile in both cases (19.35% and 23.53%) ...

Analysis of ResultsProportion of Agility (A/AT)

You can confirm that in small and midsize software development companies exists a culture of using agile techniques for the management of several projects, although this does not mean the abandonment of traditional techniques...

Is this a transition?

It is specific to each project? Or are used for all

types of projects?

Questions:

+tradicional +ágil

Conclusions and Recommendations

TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

AGILE PROJECTMANAGEMENT

ACTUAL PROJECT MANGEMENT

Conclusions

The study aimed to analyze what are the main techniques used in software development project management ordering them on a gradual scale of use;

By analyzing the results, it was concluded that there is a balance in the use of agile and traditional techniques among the respondents, which proves that there is a significant use of agile tools. So our question was answered.

Agile methods are here to stay

Recommendations

• What are the criteria for assessing whether a company is truly agile?

• Are projects using agile approaches more successful than traditional?

Thank you