TUESDAY, 07.07.2009
POSTED IN DESIGN DEVELOPMENT BY Tim
We have started the process of adapting a new way of working here at Chillifish. Through our experience working on a variety of web projects, we totally understand and appreciate the fact that the final delivered project is, in most cases, a far cry from the initial specification. Trying to force large scale web projects into traditional project management methodologies just doesn’t work, as due to the nature of the business, things change.
We’ve chosen to loosely base our project management on SCRUM, which is commonly used in Agile software development.
“Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was formulated.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
The Agile manifesto is as follows:
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_Manifesto
The SCRUM approach involves the client as part of the development team, with frequent intermediate deliveries with working functionality. This allows the client to test working software much earlier in the development cycle, and enables the project to change according to changing needs.
This approach also allows for transparency throughout the project, something which many web projects suffer greatly from, with in some cases the client only seeing the finished website days before launch. This is obviously not the best way to work, as at this stage it is far too late to make any changes, and as I said before, things DO change.
Hands on involvement from the client at early stages also allows them to ‘feel out’ functionality they may have only previously seen in a flat design or a written functional specification. And as some things sound better on paper, we want to be adaptable and position ourselves in the best possible way to deliver a project the client is over the moon about!
Two weeks into our first ’sprint’ (find out what a sprint is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development) ) and we are welcoming the change!
Check back soon, I will blog about how we find the first month..