My presentation on Agile Software Development to the MBA students of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay at Systems Continuum 2012

1. Agile Software Development
– What’s The Real Deal?
Tathagat Varma
Head of Strategic Programs and Business Operations
Yahoo! India R&D

2. Pace of Innovation and Adoption
…getting faster…
http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/12/john-robb-digital-empowerment-of-resilient-communities/

3. Waterfall Software Development
Limitations and Assumptions
1. Wrong analogy: Software development ≠ Production
2. Customers know EVERYTHING upfront and that requirement won’t change
3. Legacy from the past: implicitly assumes CPU time is costly, so focuses on doing
everything upfront to minimize ‘machine time’ for trial and error
4. “Wicked Problem”: Designers and developers know how exactly how to build
5. Very long feedback cycles not suitable for today’s pace of innovation
Picture from http://damonpoole.blogspot.in/2009/07/traditional-development-game-of.html

4. As a result, software is…
Costly
Buggy
Late

5. and the costs…?
http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/leading_answers/estimating/
http://www.agileforall.com/dyk/

6. But we want software to be…

7. What is the most important part in these
two machines?
“The Brakes!!!”
They let you go faster…

8. Agility vs. Discipline?
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/edge/08/feb08/lines_barnes_holmes_ambler/

9. Agile Manifesto 2001

10. Scrum

11. What’s happening here?
http://ayagebeely.blogspot.in/2008_08_01_archive.html

12. Feedback Loops in Traditional Techniques
vs. Agile Techniques

13. Agile Development Value Proposition
http://www.versionone.com/Agile101/Agile_Benefits.asp

14. Does Agile work?
http://www.bigvisible.com/2009/12/taking-agile-beyond-faster/
http://www.testingthefuture.net/page/2/

15. Conclusion
• Pace of Innovation, Adoption and Obsolescence is
…accelerating
• We don’t always know enough about all the problems
to design big-upfront solutions, nor have enough
resources to keep them locked-up for a long ROI cycle
• Adapting to early feedback can help make in-flight
course corrections faster, cheaper and more gracefully
• Agile frameworks and methods allow ‘inspect and
adapt’ to deliver smaller chunks of functionality
faster, thereby improving TTM
• Agile methods facilitate early creation of business
value…but don’t guarantee it!

16. Afterthoughts…
“In the struggle of survival, the
fittest win out at the expense of
their rivals because they
succeed in adapting themselves
best to their environment.”
– Charles Darwin

17. Connect
Blog: http://managewell.net
Email: Tathagat.Varma@gmail.com
Slides: http://slideshare.net/managewell
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TathagatVarma
My Articles: http://managewell.net/?page_id=2