Staying agile is the way forward
Tech Notes
WEB designers and software developers have been embracing the idea of agile development for quite some time.
The principle of agility is to break projects down into lots of smaller tasks, sharing each as you go and making many small refinements along the way. The traditional approach on the other hand was to wait until the entire task was complete and to make changes later.
This incremental, iterative approach to development makes sense in industries where technology is fast moving and requirements and solutions are constantly shifting.
Traditionally the agile approach, of course could not easily be applied to IT projects, which revolved around physical things. It is neither cheap nor easy to change power supplies, network connections, disk arrays, back-up policies or operating systems once installed. But the world of IT is changing, and the role of the project manager with it.
These days much of what IT managers do is virtual. We have virtual servers and virtual desktops, data is stored and backed up via the internet, we use databases rather than files. We strive to enable collaboration, letting teams work together, often running software in the browser or over the internet.
Project management is also changing, generally speaking IT projects used to involve looking at what was required, writing a specification, getting quotes, placing orders and rolling out physical solutions.
Now it's more about facilitating collaboration between suppliers, developers and cross-functional teams within the organisation, than it is about purchasing physical products.
In fact, an agile approach is now becoming a real possibility within IT. Suppliers no longer needing to have direct physical access to resources and web meetings and teleconferencing allows teams to have regular catch-ups without leaving their desks.
This methodology is, however, a somewhat “warts and all” approach, with end users often seeing systems that are not fully functional or in a what could only be described as a rather rough and ready state, which can be a little disconcerting for the uninitiated.
There is also a danger of project creep, with users being able to directly ask developers to build functionality that was never within the original project scope.
In order for agile development to work within IT, it is essential that there is a real partnership between client, supplier and end user.
:: David Coxon, IT manager at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
