Abstract: HSC recently participated in the prestigious Project Management Leadership (PML) 2011 event where we presented our experiences in successfully applying Agile methodologies to large projects executed offshore from the customer site.The paper was selected as a runner up in the abovementioned event.
Abstract: Other than understanding the organizational and cultural aspects related to application of Agile methods, modification and adaptation of Agile practices to suit the organization’s business context and existing systems and processes is imperative for making Agile work. For companies in the Indian software and IT services sector, these challenges are compounded due to the offshore outsourcing execution model coupled with the increasing trend of fixed price contracting. Fixed Price Model presents additional set of constraints that may make application of Agile while achieving margin targets a difficult goal to achieve. Fixed price for changing scope runs counter to profitability and fixed scope is not considered to be a good example for application of Agile.
This paper is about making Agile work in offshore outsourcing model whereby the focus is on Scrum method which is arguably the most popular Agile method and has been used by many organizations for building commercial-grade software. This paper describes the pure (or standard) Agile Scrum practices, explores the challenges in making pure Agile Scrum work in offshore outsourcing model and proposes modifications and adaptations (including to the management style and practices) to overcome those challenges especially in case of fixed price projects. The proposed modifications and adaptations are based on real life experience gained while working on Agile Scrum projects in Hughes Systique Corporation (HSC).
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