Agile Methods
Agile Methods
Agile methods refer to the flexible implementation of software projects and by this time has become an indispensable part of the daily routine of many IT organizations. Agile methods were originally developed to manage small teams who needed to develop a product quickly and across a number of disciplines.
Today, agility methods are being used increasingly for large projects and in complex organizations. However, these methods then need to be adapted and expanded accordingly, but in such a way that the original benefit of the approach remains, namely the flexibility to respond to changes quickly. In that context, the approach is then referred to as Agile 2.0.
With Agile 2.0, the agile mindset and agile methods are making their way into large organizations and projects as well. However, being “agile” shouldn’t just be an end in itself. Any organization which wants to develop an agile attitude must also undergo a cultural change. At the same time, agile methods and techniques must also be applied and integrated in a meaningful way.
Agile Mindset & Agile Methods
The term agile refers to a set of widely varying methods and techniques, some of which come from the field of industrial manufacturing and some of which come from the field of software development. In the 1990s these sectors were closely bundled together. The approach’s underlying values and principles were first put on paper at a meeting in Utah in 2001 as the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
These deliberations centered on flexibility, cooperation and a focus on customer value. The most common agile methods include:
- Scrum
- Unified Process
- Extreme Programming
- FDD
- RAD
- Agile Enterprise
- AMDD
- DSDM
- EVO
Another primary challenge in integrating agile methods and processes within an organization lies in not turning the graphic above upside down – in other words, not starting from the methods themselves, but beginning with the mindset.
Challenge: Being agile
Challenges which new agile methods must meet include:
- Agile development distributed over multiple teams
- Collaboration with non-agile projects and suppliers
- Integration within demand and portfolio management
- Agile teams in distributed locations
- Applying agility in project analysis and planning as well
- Inclusion of agility in estimation procedures
- Taking agility into account for invitations to tender and supplier interfaces
- Integration of agile development in traditional controlling and reporting
- Agility in the development of critical systems
- Integration of agile development in quality management
Our consulting approach with regard to agile methods
We combine flexibility with predictability so that even complex projects can take advantage of agile methods.
Leveraging potential
Any organization which wants to leverage the potential of agile methods must not think in terms of black and white or get caught up in thinking in stereotypes between agility and conventional methods. Instead, the focus should be on integrating and using the full potential of agile methods. In addition, predictability, traceability and quality management must not be left out of the equation.
The fact that all these issues can be bridged is proven by the many projects which have met success in the light of Agility 2.0.
The experts at Spirit in Projects will support you step-by-step in establishing agile processes in your organization or in planning, developing and carrying out agile projects.
Invitations to tender
Invitations to tender
When it comes to IT invitations to tender, public authorities in particular face a major dilemma. For one, the systems they seek to acquire are essential and need to be procured as quickly as possible, and of course at a justifiable cost. In addition, because of the legally prescribed procurement procedure, they’re limited in their choice of tenderer: In reality, the highest bidder from the procedure often isn’t the company which can actually deliver the best solution within the given stipulations of time, budget and organizational framework.
As a result, public authorities spend great effort and expense on designing a “watertight” performance specification for their invitations to tender. This generally works well for invitations to tender bids for basic goods which are easily comparable. Unfortunately, when procuring complex technical solutions and specialized software systems, performance specifications are very often not rendered in an optimal manner. What is especially problematic is that performance specifications can contain latent problems which are often discovered only when the system is delivered or put into operation, or even when it is being used on a daily basis. This subsequently results in delays, inefficient work and excessive costs for change requests.
Our consulting approach to requirements engineering
We place requirements for IT solutions in the context of business needs and available technical options, and thus avoid costly mistakes in planning.
Service catalog as a success factor
Designing service catalogs is the supreme discipline of requirements engineering and represents an essential success factor for an invitation to tender.
The preparation of a service catalog must be preceded by a few key cornerstones:
- Functional requirements were gathered and coordinated in a comprehensive manner.
- Requirements were brought into line with business strategy.
- The service catalog only contains requirements which are unambiguous, clear and consistent.
- The service catalog is organized so as to be understandable to potential suppliers.
- The service catalog supports tendering activities both in terms of content and structure.
- The service catalog makes it possible for the offers which are prepared to be easily comparable.
- If necessary, the service catalog supports negotiations, e.g. by properly prioritizing requirements.
- The service catalog can be used as a basis for preparing procedures to test and accept deliveries.
Our experience clearly shows that clean requirements engineering in the tendering process saves money – this is because offers can be more easily compared and negotiated and problems which arise over the course of the procedure and in using the delivered systems are significantly reduced.
The experts at Spirit in Projects are happy to support you – we have years of experience in the field of requirements analysis, service catalogs and invitations to tender in the public sector. Through our numerous projects and clients in the public sector we provide wide experience and know-how for the optimal preparation and handling of IT invitations to tender.
Digitalization
Digitalization
Digitalization has turned into one of the most important drivers for innovation in recent decades. Changes in economy and society triggered by digitalization keep accelerating faster and faster. Much of the business world is undergoing radical change: The “New Economy” which was promised in the 1990s has already become a reality in many areas. This technological change doesn’t affect only business processes, but also entire areas of industry and even societies.
Digitalization is therefore a difficult concept to grasp since it actually has 2 meanings. Both of these are often combined:
DIGITALIZATION AS CHANGER OF ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Digital change with regard to the social change of economy and society is characterized by a number of different themes:
Globalization of services, even in relatively small companies (e.g. Netflix, Twitter, Instagram) Increasing separation between service and delivery (e.g. Uber, Alibaba, Airbnb) Rapid change especially in servicesBusiness Models
Customer relations
Direct sales channel to end customers (e.g. online shop systems)
Direct marketing to end customers (e.g. social media marketing)
Increased transparency in comparisons of products and services
Intensive use of available data (comprehensive and current) to make decisions in business processes (e.g. recommendations in online shop systems) Use of available data to develop forecasts which are in turn used for decisions in business processes (e.g. predictive maintenance) Data protection and data security are once again becoming relevant themes.Data
Media
Resolution of media disruptions in end-to-end business processes (e.g. online management)
Smartphone and app as on-site office, always available from anywhere
DIGITALIZATION AND USE OF IT TECHNOLOGIES
Digitalization is often thought of as the implementation of new IT technologies in a company/business division or in an organization. Technology can then also be a catalyst for repositioning processes or business models. The most important technologies which drive this change include:
- Consistent use of web and mobile first technologies
- Fixed and mobile broadband Internet
- Virtualization and cloud
- Big Data
- Artificial Intelligence
- Agile software development
- Script languages & web frameworks
MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF DIGITALIZATION
These changes as well as the multitude of new themes pose a huge challenge to companies and public institutions. Meeting the challenge of digitalization means:
- Seeing and implementing digitalization as a comprehensive approach for changing society, technology, markets, organizations and processes.
- Project visions must look at least 2 – 3 years into the future so that a solution isn’t already obsolete by the time it’s implemented. This means a vision must take technical advancements and societal changes into consideration.
- Promoting the use of agile solutions in designing products, all the way up to implementation of IT systems, and actively pursuing the maturation of results.
- Promoting disruption on all levels in areas where change will produce clearly recognizable advantages.
- Learning from mistakes and quickly providing for change for solutions which cannot fulfill their expected goals.
- Making organizations fit for rapid changes, since technology and related innovations are being developed faster and faster.
Our experience shows that digitalization can quickly overtax any organization. Everybody wants to join in – but it’s often not easy to bring about an actual benefit for one’s own business. For over ten years, we’ve followed the approach of combining business and IT into one, to generate added value for our clients.
The experts at Spirit in Projects are always ready to help you when you want to implement digitalization to make your business sustainable. This includes analyzing and re-positioning your processes and implementing IT technologies so they run in an optimal manner.
More about our consulting approaches to digitalization
BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND BUSINESS PROCESSES
We integrate IT requirements with business process management to achieve maximum value and efficiency for our customers.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
We combine extensive experience in managing complex projects with in-depth technical know-how.
Enterprise Architecture
We see enterprise architecture as a informatics method for proactively shaping businesses.
Demand and Program Management
We focus on selecting the right methods and processes based on project goals, resources and framework conditions.
Innovation
Innovation is a colloquial term which refers to the creation of new ideas and inventions and their application. Innovation has therefore accompanied humanity since its earliest days. Innovation at first moved very slowly – hundreds of years passed between major innovations. Nevertheless, innovations have always led to changes and adjustments in society, the economy and everyday life. The rate of innovation has continuously accelerated over the centuries so that by now almost every person has been affected by at least one relevant innovation over the course of his or her lifetime.Innovation with passion and vision
The new challenge
The rate of technical innovation as well as its effects have experienced especially rapid acceleration over the past 50 years. The “Cambrian Explosion of Data” graphic to the right provides one example of this – the mass of data has increased exponentially over the last decade, and with structured data the next paradigm shift has already been heralded.
Because of such acceleration, changes due to technical innovation are impacting our daily lives like no previous generation. Certainties will be overturned and new playing rules will be created within just a few years. These days, it’s nearly impossible to predict the future. As a result, many people feel like they’re racing up an unknown mountain road in a sports car and the accelerator’s stuck.
In such a situation it’s important, especially for companies and organizations, to keep a cool head. Both hands on the steering wheel, and react quickly and flexibly so you’re sure not to fall asleep and miss the next curve. Innovations come into being constantly, with or without our help and outside of our personal sphere of influence. Anyone who wants to use innovations to benefit society, the economy and our personal lives requires joy in shaping the future, a high level of attention and active participation. Spirit in Projects has made it our goal to support you to the full extent of our abilities. We see technology and IT as a realm for opportunity, but one which can also bring uncertainty. As engineers, our goal isn’t just to provide rapid, state-of-the-art developments but also to generate long-term value for our customers through quality planning and foresight.
At Spirit in Projects, we see IT as a realm where ideas can be transformed into reality. We truly enjoy IT and the rapid changes it brings. And we’re convinced that it’ll improve all our lives for the better.
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