1. Fixed Price Distributed Agile
Projects
Raja Bavani

2. Agenda
• Fixed Price & Agile
• Case Study – Project Objectives
• Proposed Approach
• Team Composition
• Project Phases
• Challenges
• Best Practices & Lessons Learned
• Findings
• Discussions + Q&A
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3. Fixed Price & Agile
• Projects are sanctioned on pre-approved fixed budget
• Customers prefer FP contracts
• FP Agile Projects – Very Challenging
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4. Case Study
Project Objectives
• Conduct Performance Testing of one of the key products
under multiple hardware configurations
• Offer recommendations on optimal database configurations
• Submit a comprehensive performance test report
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5. Phased Approach
Phase Duration Description
&Location
Phase I -Strategy and 2 weeks, Product Demo, Hands-on Learning,
Planning Customer Site Discussions, Strategy Formulation,
and
High Level Planning
Phase II - Execution 22 weeks, 11 iterations of 2 weeks each with daily
(Framework Development, Distributed stand-ups and iteration reviews &
Test Design, Test Execution, Locations retrospectives
Analysis and Reporting)
Phase III - Training & Closure 1 week, Training on Performance Testing
Customer Site Framework and Project Closure
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6. Team Composition
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7. Phase I – Strategy and Planning
Objectives
• Refine the project scope
• Validate 95% of the assumptions
• Access risks and identify issues
• Derive a high level plan of subsequent phases
• Identify infrastructure requirements
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8. Phase II – Execution
Objectives
• Framework Development
• Test Design
• Test Execution
• Analysis and Reporting
Agile Practices
• Daily Standup Meetings
• Iteration Planning
• Iteration Reviews and Retrospectives
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9. Phase III – Training and Closure
Objectives
• Knowledge Transfer on the design and the code base of
our framework
• Training on analyzing and compiling test results in order
to create test reports
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10. Challenges
Challenges
• Unstable Test Environment
• Unexpected Outages
• New Builds
• Changes in Team Members
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11. Best Practices & Lessons Learned
Best Practices
• Phased Approach
• Implementation of Agile Practices
• Transparency and Quantitative Management
Lessons Learned
• Validate the need for additional phases
• Validate the need for additional environment
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12. Findings
• Scope stability is critical
• Provision for scope adjustment is equally important
• Divide and Conquer: Do multiple small projects
• Fixed Price model works better in Agile Ecosystems
• Fixed Price model and Distributed Agile has to be leveraged to
get better visibility and predictability (not to introduce only
changes frequently during execution)
• Necessary to have technically savvy stakeholders who can
understand and appreciate challenges for win-win negotiations
• Planned reviews conducted in systematic manner are essential
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13. Discussions + Q&A
 What has been your experience?
 Do you have any additional inputs?
 Do you have any questions?
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14. THANK YOU Raja Bavani
Raja_Bavani@mindtree.com
+91 20 67924038
www.mindtree.com
http://www.mindtree.com/blogs/author/raja-bavani
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