Socitm advocates development approach combining best of Agile and PRINCE2
2 Jul 2014 12:34 PM
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.