Agile project implementation methodology at CloudFronts

 We have been hearing a lot about Agile Methodology for project implementation. But, we also need to see if it is the right choice for Dynamics world. Agile in short says “Do not wait till end, rather let’s see the deliverable in pieces”. Well, that’s justified too. Clients here get to see their baby at regular intervals. Each delivery sprint can go in a controlled manner from End-to-End delivery cycle like the complete projects does, excluding the deployment phase, which happens at the end of the last Sprint of the project.

We at CloudFronts practice Agile for all the project implementation. In fact, our PSM solution is getting redesigned to suit the needs of such Agile project implementation. This is done in order to help project managers keep the data intact in CRM and do not scatter it in multiple excel files. Right from Project creation to Resource allocation to Gantt Charts to Time sheet’s we keep all of it inside CRM so that the PM is in pace of the project and all is in single place.

Agile generally demands clear requirements for the project to be implemented. Keeping this in mind the project moves through Sprints. The following image illustrates “Where does Sprints come into picture”.

We too follow the standard practise dictated by Agile:

1. Daily stand up meeting
2. Iteration planning
3. Unit testing
4. Release planning
5. Burndown/team-based estimation
6. Coding standards
7. Continuous integration
8. Automated builds

The project planning is done in MS Project in Sprinted approach. Though MS Project is not the ideal tool to do Agile Planning but taking the advantage of its flexibility that allows us to do it.

 
We have the following documents in place for each Sprint and the Sprints coming ahead:

1. Daily Agile task allocation Sheet: This is an Excel sheet where we allocate the tasks to the team during the daily stand up meeting and mark the Pending tasks that are incomplete.
2. Sprint Document: This contains the following 4 things:
   1. Achievable
   2. Backlog
   3. Completed
   4. Other Remarks

   All the incomplete tasks from previous sprint are move to next sprints Backlog section.
   This also then becomes the part of the current sprint.

There are multiple benefits of following Agile:

1. Development process gets streamlined and simplified.
2. Higher rate of customer satisfaction.
3. Reduces risk.
4. Improves project Visibility.
5. Success rate for project goes higher by 70%
6. Reduces the cost of development.

So, this is what CloudFronts follows as Agile practice. Hope you found this article useful. We will continue to publish more articles as we implement “Agile” that works for Dynamics projects !