Agile software development in an earned value world: a survival guide

Jeffrey Kantor; Kevin Long; Jacek Becla; Frossie Economou; Margaret Gelman; Mario Juric; Ron Lambert; Simon Krughoff; John D. Swinbank; Xiuqin Wu

doi:10.1117/12.2233380

19 August 2016 Agile software development in an earned value world: a survival guide

Jeffrey Kantor, Kevin Long, Jacek Becla, Frossie Economou, Margaret Gelman, Mario Juric, Ron Lambert, Simon Krughoff, John D. Swinbank, Xiuqin Wu

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9911, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VII; 99110N (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233380
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

Agile methodologies are current best practice in software development. They are favored for, among other reasons, preventing premature optimization by taking a somewhat short-term focus, and allowing frequent replans/reprioritizations of upcoming development work based on recent results and current backlog. At the same time, funding agencies prescribe earned value management accounting for large projects which, these days, inevitably include substantial software components. Earned Value approaches emphasize a more comprehensive and typically longer-range plan, and tend to characterize frequent replans and reprioritizations as indicative of problems. Here we describe the planning, execution and reporting framework used by the LSST Data Management team, that navigates these opposite tensions.

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Jeffrey Kantor, Kevin Long, Jacek Becla, Frossie Economou, Margaret Gelman, Mario Juric, Ron Lambert, Simon Krughoff, John D. Swinbank, and Xiuqin Wu "Agile software development in an earned value world: a survival guide", Proc. SPIE 9911, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VII, 99110N (19 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233380

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