Agile development in the old economy

Abstract

As part of the delivery an automated hub for a postal operator, the Solystic company has to build a complex and feature rich information system that supports a highly automated process with multiple intricate sub-processes and exceptions. The effort has several challenges: 1) it is business critical for the customer, and the output of the project will give the customer a leading position; 2) it is the first time Solystic is managing a complete system project, although its mother company Northrop Grumman had previous experience of this business; 3) the program is one of the first business of the Solystic company in the international field; 4) it is a fixed price, fixed time contract with a short time frame. To face all these challenges, the software development group in charge of the information system has adopted a number of agile practices and techniques to manage the project. The major project settings are adapted from Alistair Cockburn's crystal set of methodologies, SCRUM and Jim Coplien's work on organizational patterns. We present the findings and lessons learned by the team and its manager.