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Shifting to Agile: Are University Libraries Ready? Kayla Ondracek – Project Manager Nabeela Jaffer – Applications Programmer.
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Shifting to Agile: Are University Libraries Ready? Kayla Ondracek – Project Manager NabeelaJaffer – Applications Programmer
“Agile software development is a set of principles for software development in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
Frameworks • Scrum (very popular! Focus on iteration, fast delivery, can’t fully understand the problem at the beginning) • Kanban (process management, just-in-time delivery) • Extreme Programming/XP (pair programming, code review, only coding features when they are needed) • Etc…
What does it mean to be Agile? • 12 Principles – Highlights • Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of useful software • Delivery working software more frequently • Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted • Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design • Self-organizing teams agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
What are the benefits of Agile? • Clear expectations between stakeholders & team • Transparency, visibility during development • Increased stakeholder engagement • Adapt to shifting/uncertain requirements • Manage & reduce risk • Helps libraries to respond quickly to changing information environment to better serve patrons
University of Michigan experience • Interest in Agile principles for some time • Grassroots, experimental approach • Pockets of implementation • Learning Technologies Incubation Group • Cross-department teams • Working with vendors
University of Michigan experience • MHydra Prototype • Focus on creating & facilitating a self-organized, empowered team • Pair-programming & group code walk-throughs used to share knowledge and come to shared understanding of codebase • 2-week iterations • Standard scrum events (standups, planning, refinement, review, retrospective) • Research Data • Development based on user stories, agreed-upon MVP (minimum viable product) • Self-organized team
University of Michigan experience • Publishing & Bentley Historical Library • Working with a vendor for development – DCE & Artefactual • Vendor has significant experience running as scrum • As stakeholder, U-M invited to daily stand-ups, planning, review
Others • Private research university • Standard team composition + business analyst • UX involvement in planning and testing, reconciliation to requirements • 2 week sprints, JIRA • “All-hands” meetings every 6 months to sketch out dev cycles • Self-organizing. Developers work well together • Challenge? Managing stakeholder communications & expectations • Easiest? Getting feedback at the end of a development cycle
Challenges • Communicating core principles of Agile - meeting purposes • Shifting mindsets – Enabling the team to feel empowered • Working with “timeboxed” approach • Managing communication & increased involvement with stakeholders • Harder to involve library patrons than in classic client model
Landscape • Themes • Adoption timelines – some have been using Agile principles for years, some have just adopted • Project/department-based testing, then broader implementation • http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iatul/2014/plenaries/1/ • http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/4642 • Flexible implementation – teams & institutions choose applicable principles, stretch principles (longer sprints, etc) • http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/7394