Different tools have been used through the business community and by software developers. The use of these tools, methods and methodologies are very different as they all serve different purposes and needs. The particular usage of Agile, TQM, SFIA and Prince2 within the business community and software developers will be discussed in this article.
KEYWORDS: tools, methods, methodologies, Agile, TQM, SFIA, Prince2
Agile
“Agile” is an umbrella term given to several iterative and incremental software development methodologies. These methodologies all hold the same principles but from an implementation stage they all have a different set of principles and tasks. (Varun, 2015)
All Agile methodologies include breaking down each project into processes called iterations. An iteration is the routine of developing a feature of a project at a time, and includes meeting, planning, designing, developing, testing and evaluating the product. Examples of Agile Methodologies are Scrum, XP, Lean, Kanban and Crystal. (Version One, n.d.)
Many businesses such as Spotify, Apple, Phillips and Siemens use Agile’s methodology. According to a CA Technologies survey, 74% of IT and business leaders believe that Agile environments improve the overall customer experience and, because of this, 91% of the top 25% of companies are implementing Agile practices in their workplace. Agile is useful in the business community because many companies are starting to or already using Agile. (CA Technologies, 2017)
Businesses use Agile to respond to organisational change, increase productivity and to meet unexpected customer needs. Many companies use Agile; Apple use it as an integral part of their product design and production. For example, when creating a new iPhone, they have meetings about what hardware features should be included, then create a mock-up of the phone and test and evaluate ready for the next prototype phone to be created. (Segue Technologies, 2015)
Agile is useful in the business community because it has a clear plan for making sure the company has not only the best outcome for the business in terms of customer experience but also has been shown to improve employee motivation. (Agile Alliance, n.d.)
Agile doesn’t have a fixed software product pricing. This means that the business cannot know how much the software product will cost them until the project starts; even then they only get an estimate. It could mean that the business might have to overspend on developing certain products, which could potentially strain the business of their resources. (Visual Compass, 2015)
Agile isn’t ideal for large business projects; this is because it’s difficult to apply Agile’s intricate breakdown process on a larger scale. (Group 1 Agile Handouts, 2018) To be able to use Agile for these projects the business would have to implement a feature (or user story) in all components of the system (Konrad et al, 2015). By doing this, it would give the teams focus. This would take the business longer to complete the project as they have to implement the new features.
The key usefulness of Agile to software developers is that it acknowledges the reality of software programming, that things will change. Agile keeps changes from disrupting a project and turns them into a positive for the outcome of the project and for the team. (Walsh, 2016)
Whilst using Agile the software developers get to provide something tangible to show to users; thus, avoiding finding out six months down the line that they’ve built something exactly as per requirements but it’s not what the business stakeholders wanted. Agile is useful to the software developers in this case as it allows them to get fast feedback frequently until they’ve built something that everyone is happy with. (Kharlamov, 2016)
When done correctly, Agile allows teams of software developers to gain value and customer learning iteratively. Agile allows software developers to see the results of their work sooner and also allows them to correct their software as they go along. (Boice, 2016)
Agile uses regular meetings with full participation in order to keep meetings brief and staff on track. By having meetings everyday Agile identifies problems early; it doesn’t waste the time of the team further down the line of production. (Boyle, 2016)
Agile allows teams of software developers to respond to changing plans effectively and measure productivity over time to anticipate future workload. This means that the customers are happy because they have a higher probability of getting what they wanted. Software developers can fix important bugs and push their software out of the door quicker. (Brown, 2016)
Most Agile methodologies focus on creating a shared sense of ownership and goals for the team giving a purpose to get more done and set a faster pace for the software development team. (Kirby, 2016)
Agile acknowledges that the best solutions come from an iterative learning process with frequent releases. In traditional software development there is a lot of energy spent on managing a project plan as things are learned. Agile also acknowledges that learning is a part of the process and removes the need to make plans that are going to change anyway allowing the software developers to fully focus on the task at hand. (Koltunov, 2016)
Agile could create problems for new members in a software development team because some documentation is less detailed. This is because the requirements for software is given the go ahead just before the developing stage of Agile. The new members joining the software team would be confused about some features because the documentation is poor, which would mean that they would need to catch up quickly. (Group 1 Agile Handouts, 2018)
Timing is an issue with Agile. This means that it’s easy to misjudge the amount of time that’s available for any task, which could lead to the project derailing because the team isn’t focusing on the right side of the project at the right time. (Group 1 Agile Handouts, 2018)
SFIA – Skills Framework for the Information Age
SFIA stands for Skills Framework for the Information Age and is a model used for describing and managing competencies for ICT professionals in the digital world. It is intended to help match the skills of the workforce to the needs of the business. SFIA’s main purpose is to define IT business skills at a high level to ensure individuals working for government and organisations have the right skills matched to the right role. SFIA has 6 skill families which include: strategy and architecture, change and transformation, solution and implementation, delivery and operation, skills and quality and relationships and engagements. Within these families there are 97 skills which are classified into 7 responsibility areas; each skill has between 3 and 4 levels of responsibilities. (Group 7 SFIA Handouts, 2018)
SFIA is used by organisations to define role profiles. This ensures that the right candidates are attracted and selected for the role or job description. SFIA is useful to the business community as it ensures that the right individuals are working for the right company in the right role for them. (Group 7 SFIA presentation, 2018)
SFIA is also used by organisations to identify existing talent in their current employees to deploy them to meaningful tasks. SFIA is useful to the business community as it makes sure that business tasks are tackled by individuals within the business that are more qualified to do so. (Group 7 SFIA presentation, 2018)
In addition, SFIA helps organisations when considering staff performance as current skills can be looked at more objectively. This helps to build and develop staff skills, thus making SFIA useful to the business community. (Group 7 SFIA presentation, 2018)
SFIA can also be useful to the business community within events and conferences as it can be used to map target audiences. This ensures that the individuals can select events that best suit their needs. (Group 7 SFIA presentation, 2018)
SFIA isn’t beneficial for students to use. This is a problem as a drop of 2.2% was recorded because students weren’t matched to an ideal placement or graduate schemes. Students aren’t able to because to access SFIA you’d need a lot of experience of working so you’d be able to know what skills you have. Businesses need to recruit up-and-coming talent and using SFIA would limit their ability to do this. (Viña, 2016)
SFIA is used by software developers to help to match their skills to the right role. This ensures that they apply for software developing roles in businesses that suits their skills sets. SFIA is useful to software developers as it helps develops their career by matching them to a role that suits them. (Group 7 SFIA presentation, 2018)
SFIA is also useful to software developers when in an organisation. SFIA develops software developers’ abilities as organisations looks at their current skills set more objectively and deploying them to do more meaningful tasks that suit their skills set. (Group 7 SFIA presentation, 2018)
SFIA has been criticised for not having enough detail on the software side of the framework; because of this, the framework ASFIA (which stands for Adjusted Skills Framework for the Information Age) was created; the ASFIA framework adds an extra skill family called ‘Tools and Technologies’ to SFIA which makes sure that the framework is easier for software developers to use by making software tools and technologies relevant to each family skill. (Rudzajs, 2010)
Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management or TQM describes a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all members of an organisation participate in improving processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work. In order to achieve this, there are certain principles that the organisation must be able to uphold: focus on customer, employee involvement and rewards system, continuous improvement, effective communication and leadership. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
When applied consistently over time, TQM can reduce costs throughout an organisation, especially in the areas of waste, and having to re-do failed service calls and therefore improve efficiency. TQM is useful to the business community as it can increase the profitability of the business as the cost reductions from improved quality and efficiency flow straight through the bottom line without any additional costs being added on. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
TQM can be useful to the business community as there would be a higher customer satisfaction with the company. Since the business has better products and services, and its interactions with customers are relatively error-free, there should be fewer customer complaints. Fewer complaints may also mean that the resources devoted to customer service can be reduced. A higher level of customer satisfaction may also lead to increased market share, as existing customers act on the business’s behalf to bring in more customers. (Hernandez, 2010)
The success of TQM, and in particular the emphasis on employee involvement can lead to a noticeable improvement in employee morale this reduces employee turnover, and therefore reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees. (Group 8 TQM presentation, 2018)
TQM is expensive to implement, due to many costs such as training costs, team development costs, consultant fees that is required. This means that TQM isn’t suitable for smaller businesses because of the executional costs out way the benefits. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
TQM also discourages creativity because it focuses on task standardisation to ensure consistency. In addition, new ideas are also discouraged, and this means that productivity is reduced within the business. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
Many businesses give up on TQM as it is a process that is time lengthy. They do this because they fail to see tangible results quickly as highly competitive businesses cannot afford the luxury of time. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
TQM demands a lot of resources from a business. This means that significant planning, time, long-term resource allocation and unwavering managerial support must be given to a TQM system otherwise it will fail. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
TQM has a strong emphasis on improving quality within a process, rather than inspecting quality into a process. This is useful to a team of software developers as it not only reduces the time needed to fix errors but makes it less necessary to employ a team of quality assurance personnel to help them. (Group 8 TQM Handouts, 2018)
TQM requires teams to change their mind-set and attitude about how to perform in their jobs. This could make the workers fearful of change as managers haven’t communicated effectively TQM’s approach, which could lead to lower employer morale within the business. (Giliani, n.d.)
During the beginning stages of TQM, employers need to get training on how to use the system. This could reduce employer output as they need to take some time off their work schedules to understand TQMs way of working. (Giliani, n.d.)
Prince2
Prince2 (an acronym for PRojects In Controlled Environments) is a process based method for effective project management. It’s made up of 7 themes, principles and processes; the processes are the how and the themes and principles make up the what and the why. Throughout these 7 stages, records are kept so the project stays on track and it organised. The main goal when using Prince2 is to break down and divide a project into manageable and controllable stages. (Group 2 Prince2 Handouts, 2018)
Prince2 provides businesses with a step-by-step method from start to finish. Its focus on the project’s deliverables, and the what, why, where, when and by whom, gives the project an organised and controlled process throughout. The Prince2 method also allows for regular reviews of the project’s progress against the plan, so any risks or potential problems can be addressed and managed. (Group 2 Prince2 Handouts, 2018)
Prince2 provides business assurance that the project continues to have a business justification, by having regular reviews of progress against the plan. This gives the project a controlled and organised start, middle and end whilst also giving the business a common, consistent approach to every project.
There isn’t a strict “how-to” guide that has to be abided at all times with Prince2. This means that it can be tailored for the needs of the business; unlike Agile, Prince2 can be used for projects of any size and type.
But, similarly to Agile, Prince2’s method focuses on what the project needs to deliver by dividing the project into smaller portions or stages. Not only can large-scale projects seem more manageable, but goals can be set and achieved more easily. (Group 2 Prince2 Handouts, 2018)
Prince2 involves a lot of documentation which makes some of its processes difficult to manage in terms of understanding how the project is going. This means that documenting can become the main focus, which can lead the project into major trouble. (Prince2.com, 2018)
It can be an issue for small organisations to use Prince2 as it recognises four management levels: “Corporate or programme management”, “Directing a project”, “Managing a project” and “Managing product deliverer”. It would be difficult for smaller organisations to employ people with the skills that are equivalent to Prince2’s management level. (Prince2.com, 2018)
In addition, Prince2 can become a heavy-duty approach for smaller projects; if the method is not tailored to the need of the project properly it may produce too much work load and documents for the business to handle. (Axelos, 2015)
Prince2 requires individuals within businesses to be trained using certain technology. This means that to the business training staff with Prince2 can be costly as it requires them to buy specialist equipment just for the methodology. (Axelos, 2015)
Using Prince2 means that everyone involved in a software project uses a common approach and language. The standardised procedures and methods bring clarity to the project and between members of your software development team. (Group 2 Prince2 presentation, 2018)
Prince2 defines clear roles and responsibilities. Each team member is assigned a role or roles right at the start of the project. This would be useful to a team of software developers as all team members would understand their tasks and responsibilities and commit to them from the outset. (Group 2 Prince2 presentation, 2018)
Organising a project using the Prince2 methodology requires a strong project team but often project teams are not strong and do not function well. This means that software developers might overspend, go off track and/or are unable to deliver the intended outcomes that were required of them. (Chin, 2013)
Within Prince2, the most core level of forming a project are the requirements. If there are no requirements, no projects will be developed. This is also the case if the wrong requirements are inputted, the project will be ‘wrong’ too. Prince2 is an implementation methodology, which can lead to projects being adopted on false premises, and thereby inevitably lead to failure of the project. (Group 2 Prince2 Handouts, 2018)
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that the tools, methods and methodologies chosen are useful for the business community and for software developers. Some tools are more useful than others for the business community e.g. TQM, some are more useful for software developers e.g. Agile and some are equally as useful to them both e.g. Prince2. However, it is important to make sure that the right tool, method or methodology is used for the right purpose as not all of the tools, methods and methodologies are used for similar needs.
References
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