Agile software development is most often associated with small companies and small development teams. The very fact that agile teams should have no more than about a dozen members sets limitations that lead us to question the possibility of doing large enterprise data warehousing projects in an agile manner. Despite the limitations, agile can nevertheless…
For those of us who started our careers as traditional project managers, transforming into a Scrum Master role is an arduous journey. To be truly agile, we must surrender being the one who is in command and control. Our new role is to be coach and facilitator, teacher and observer. This is easier said than…
A large number of companies are starting to implement at least a few of their projects using agile approaches. They do so because it is becoming known that agile projects are more successful and their stakeholders more satisfied. It is risky if a company starts implementing agile before they understand exactly what it means in…
According to many sources, agile data warehousing is the way to go in the future. Recently, Larissa Moss spoke about this topic at the TDWI conference in Munich, Germany in her session Extreme Scoping: Agile approach for enterprise-class EDW/BI. The main point of her session was the importance of the availability of data that is clearly understood…
PMI continues with its annual publishing of extensions to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This year they finally published the long awaited Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition. The extension includes widely accepted practices in managing software projects. The structure of the software extension is the same as the structure of…
As data volumes increase to the point where we call them “big data”, users’ appetites increase alongside. They want to be able to quickly analyze these huge volumes of data and achieve immediate business intelligence results. Agile approaches are becoming common in software development because they enable users to receive tangible results in short time…
When we talk about agile projects and the most popular agile approaches such as Scrum, XP, Lean or Kanban, there is never any mention of specific team member roles that correspond to waterfall projects. For example, where are the specialists, such as system architects, database designers, or business analysts? Are they no longer relevant in…
Agile is popular and the web is brimming with information about it. Due to so much information it is not easy for a newbie who wants to get involved with agile development to decide how to begin or to distinguish between truth and myth. To make it even more confusing there are conflicting facts –…
Contrary to traditional project management where risk management is an integral and crucial part of the project management process, there is no explicit mention of risk management in popular agile methodologies. This makes us wonder whether we manage risk on agile projects at all. It should make sense that since agile project management differs from…
The business environment is changing at a fast pace and projects are not always up to date with achieving business goals. Agile project management ensures quick results that satisfy stakeholder requirements in a timely manner. On top of that we should also implement agile program and portfolio management which ensures that a collection of projects…