Agile Methods for Large Projects

While attending the recent Technology in Government and Public Sector summit for 2011 I had opportunity to meet with and listen to many CIOs and senior IT representative for several government departments.

On several occasions I heard them talk about the success they’d had with Agile delivery methodologies and smaller projects and I was quite excited to hear the acceptance of Agile projects in the public sector. Unfortunately all too quickly the conversation changed to “but then we had a large project, and obviously couldn’t use an Agile delivery” and my heart sunk.

I would seek to challenge this notion that Agile methods are only suitable for smaller projects. Agile methods and Waterfall deliveries are no more or less suited to small or large projects. It is really about the level of certainty in the final delivered solution. Waterfall deliveries expect a high degree of certainty in what the end solution will be, Agile Deliveries encourage and allow for a high degree of flexibility in path the project takes and what the end solution will be. Neither is more or less suited for large or small projects, but where the final solution is well understood and predictable then waterfall is a very useful delivery methodology, where the final solution is not well understood or can not be predicted the Agile methods become a stronger approach. And at least in my experience the larger a project becomes then more difficult it becomes to predict the final solution.

Regards,

Finn Blucher.

Agile Digital Consulting Delivery Manager

Openness in Government Data

There’s been quite a lot of back and forth with regards to Gov 2.0 recommendations and their impact on openness and availability of government data. May 25th we saw the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) release the Principles on Open Public Sector information ( The 8 Principals ). This is a excellent set of principals to guide federal government with it’s use and availability of data.

1. Open access to information  – a default position,
2. Engaging the community,
3. Effective information governance,
4. Robust information asset management,
5. Discoverable and useable information,
6. Clear reuse rights,
7. Appropriate charging for access, 
8. Transparent enquiry and complaints processes.

I think we are reaching a point where government needs to trust it’s population as producers, creators and visionaries. Allow people to review, combine and build upon data to create new, valuable information. Synergy

Genesis

Agile Digital Engineering is a Canberra-based information technology solutions provider. Agile Digital was founded in 2004 as a specialist enterprise software development firm; with the strategic vision to develop a “project ready capability” for the rapid delivery of web-scale software platforms for both the private and public sectors. Agile Digital has realised this capability via targeted investment in its people, processes and tools over the past seven years.

Agile Digital engages in enterprise information technology consultancy in addition to ongoing engineering projects and operations support for our clients. Agile Digital’s software engineers have demonstrated successes in producing large-scale web-based solutions for several Commonwealth government agencies including the Department of Defence, Geoscience Australia, IP Australia and the Australian Research Council. The firm has also enjoyed significant success in the private sector; most notably in the development, delivery and support of the world-class real-estate platform allhomes.com.au for All Homes Pty Ltd Agile Digital Engineering is a Canberra-based information technology solutions provider.

Agile Digital was founded in 2004 as a specialist enterprise software development firm; with the strategic vision to develop a “project ready capability” for the rapid delivery of web-scale software platforms fo rboth the private and public sectors. Agile Digital has realised this capability via targeted investment in its people, processes and tools over the past seven years.Agile Digital engages in enterprise information technology consultancy in addition to ongoing engineering projects and operations support for our clients. Agile Digital’s software engineers have demonstrated successes in producing large-scale web-based solutions for several Commonwealth government agencies including the Department of Defence, Geoscience Australia, IP Australia and the Australian Research Council. The firm has also enjoyed significant success in the private sector; most notably in the development, delivery and support of the world-class real-estate platform allhomes.com.au for All Homes Pty Ltd