Page 26 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes Application Area

XP is a frivolous methodology for small-to-medium-sized teams developing software in the face of
vague or rapidly changing requirements. XP is a good choice when requirements are unclear (which
might occur when because himself does not know precisely what he wants), or prone to change
(because of changing business situations, or as a result of external conditions). Because in XP the
development of a product is divided into many small cycles, and each cycle is planned separately,
changes to the planning can be made constantly, rapidly and easily. Team size is an issue when
implementing XP. XP is meant for small-to-medium sized teams. In practice, this means that teams
should be maximum ten people. A few more is probably okay, but twenty is too many.

Advantages

 An XP project is very impressionable. A usable product can be released very quickly, at
which point the business can already take advantage of the product, and the product can
and will be improved continually after that, with feedback that stems from live use.
Especially when the project is exploratory for the customer as well, having feedback from
live use and adapting to changing minds, wishes and circumstances can be invaluable.

 Additionally, the process is very clear. Progress, position and direction of the project are
very transparent, which will make management happy as well.

Disadvantages

 The main roadblock to implementing XP in any given environment will usually be the
customer. The ‘customer’ or a person that plays the role of the customer, has to be an
integral part of the development team. This means that the customer will have to be
obtainable on-site at all times. Sometimes, this is just not feasible, or the customer will
refuse to assign an employee to the development team full-time. In such cases, XP will not
be able to work properly, and should be abandoned.

Task What do you understand from the statement “All practices of XP work jointly to
achieve this goal”?

Scrum

Scrum is an agile technique for project management, in use since at least 1990. It has been called
a “hyper-productivity tool”, and has been documented to considerably improve productivity in
teams previously paralyzed by heavier methodologies-quickly producing results where there
had been little or none.
Scrum uses the following concepts:

 Sprint: A period of 30 days or less where a set of work will be execute to create a deliverable.
 Backlog: All work to be performed in the predictable future, both well defined and requiring
further definition.

 Sprint backlog: The work that should be done through the current sprint.
 Product backlog: The work that should be done for the entire product as desired by the
customer.

 Scrum: A daily meeting at which progress and obstruction to progress are reviewed.

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