WIREDGOV

ICT managers undertaking new product and service developments should consider the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) says Socitm in a new briefing.

In Agile or PRINCE2 - a need to choose?, Socitm says that Agile has many champions because of its ability to deliver business benefits fast. However, as the whole project is not planned in detail at the start, there are perceived risks of costly overruns. There are also concerns about scalability, since Agile uses small teams and public sector projects can be very large. 

Favoured in the public sector for its tools to manage cost and risk, PRINCE2 is, however, often criticised for being bureaucratic and for generating too much documentation. It is also associated with the ‘waterfall’ approach to project management, with its lengthy, linear successions of steps that can mean that by the time implementation is eventually reached, the business requirement has moved on from the original specification. 

Although the two approaches may seem poles apart, the Socitm briefing says that the DSDM inverts the traditional governance model for software development, making it possible to combine the speed and fitness for purpose that Agile promises, while maintaining the control that PRINCE2 offers. 

Agile or PRINCE2 - a need to choose?, is available free of charge to Socitm Insight subscribers.

Later this year Socitm Insight will publish a practical guide to managing Agile projects in a hybrid PRINCE2 / DSDM environment.