Agile Methodology in Sapient - Case Study Example

Agile Methodology in Sapient College: Agile Methodology in Sapient Sapient is a multinational company based in Massachusetts that provides technology services to its clients. In an effort to streamline its business operations, it has engaged the agile methodology in their business design and has influenced their clients to follow suit. For Sapient, the agile methodology is a vehicle for effective service delivery and a platform to optimize returns. The Sapient Approach has become a modest method in which other organizations can emulate to streamline their business operations. Although this approach has its own challenges, it is workable and its merits far much outweigh its demerits. Comparing the agile approach with non-agile methodologies, it is clear that the former is superior in the implementation stage. An example of a non-agile approach that Sapient would have considered is the spiral method that is common in project development. The Spiral approach is a risk driven method that aims at assessing the risk of the project and defining ways to mitigate the risk. A close analysis of both methods shows that each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The main reason why Sapient adopted the agile methodology was to overcome unique business challenges that recurred within their operations. First, the client needs were evolving and the organization was expected to remain dynamic to meet the needs of their clients. The clients demanded that the organization standardize the prices of their services despite the changing needs. As such, the organization required to adopt effective cost and time control methods. Secondly, it was becoming a challenge to deal with the big portion of their customer that came from the government environment. The government based clients were complex to handle due to bureaucracy and tough contractual terms. These challenges were posing a barrier to the development of the organization and making it tough for the organization to achieve optimal profits (Cobb, 2011). In this light, the organization wanted to change its overall methodology to achieve effectiveness. The Sapient Agile approach was implemented in four discrete stages of project development. The first stage, referred to as the focus phase, was involved with the setting up the vision and engaging all the stakeholders in the project design. Both the internal and external stakeholders chaired a meeting to develop the project goals and create the priorities of the project. This way, it was possible to define the success factors of the project and calculate the most effective path that they could use to achieve expected end results. The ultimate benefits of the fusion stage were to ensure that all project dimensions were clear, predict the project risks and guarantee the clients in accomplishing their organizational goals. In the second stage, the executable architectural release (EAR), the team built a prototype of the project for the purpose of testing and evaluation of the workability of the project (Cobb, 2011). The third stage, termed as the phase of development iterations, was a correction stage in which the EAR team delivered feedback after testing the project. The two stages allowed the organization to ensure that before the actual implementation the project was workable and to find the most effective way to achieve the state client needs. In the final stage, the manage phase, the team implemented and monitored the project by checking the established success factors. The agile approach has numerous benefits to the project delivery in Sapient. With the agile approach, the organization is able to engage its internal and external stakeholders in the determination of the project goals. Getting the parties on board ensures that the project delivered accurately conforms to the design requirements of the clients. The benefit of this is that the clients are satisfied and pay loyalty to the organization. In the contemporary business environment, customer loyalty is a virtue of great value to any organization. Secondly, the sapient approach has helped them to achieve cost and time efficiencies that are critical in its operational management. Cost and time are critical organizational parameters that must be optimized if the organizations have to operate at a profit (Cobb, 2011). Being able to deliver projects on time without sacrificing the quality of the project allows the organization to achieve optimum profit. In a nutshell, the agile method has assisted Sapient to achieve its organizational goals and remain relevant in a dynamic market. Nevertheless, the Sapient approach has its own challenges, especially in the implementation stage. First, the process of involving both the external and internal stakeholders is complex and may result to the complication of the project. In principle, it takes longer for the members to agree on the vision in the fusion stage and this may bring conflict within the team. This is a challenge that may result to project derailment and may add cost factors at the end of it all, which can be termed as inefficiency. Another challenge that comes along with this method is that when the application users are not always available in the process of project implementation of the project (Cobb, 2011). This makes it impossible for them to provide corrective advice and this may jeopardize the quality of the project. From this point of view, the agile approach is superior method but its dependence on various stake holders is a source of challenges. There are a number of requirements that must be in place before the implementation of the Sapient agile approach. First, team formation must be well structured as the method is people dependent. Projects are handled by teams and the agile approach will not materialize unless motivated teams exist. Also, effective communication channels should be developed to ensure that there is an effective link between the external and internal stakeholders in the organization (Cobb, 2011). The developers and the clients should be able to communicate effectively during the entire project time starting from the fusion stage to the management phase. Lastly, this method requires that the client characteristics be considered before its implementation. For instance, for clients who are unavailable during the project development process, the Sapient agile approach will not work efficiently. To improve the Sapient approach, there is the need to reduce the dependence of the project on the stakeholders. When a project heavily depends on its stakeholders, there is a risk of inefficiency due to the complexity of the stakeholder characteristics. In this effect, reducing the stake holder dependence will ensure that the project continues to run effectively even in the absence of stakeholder input. Secondly, it is crucial to streamline the communication strategy within the business framework to allow the clients to garner client input without having to meet them physically. This will ensure that all the opinions of the members are considered during the project implementation to reduce the number of meetings, which at times overloads the clients (Cobb, 2011). By improving communication and reducing people dependency of the project will ensure smooth running of the project implementation phase. Although the method has worked for Agile, it is clear that these challenges exist within the organization and improvement of the project would be of great benefit to the organization. The spiral model is a non-agile model that Sapient would have considered to resolve the challenges evident in their organization. This is a risk driven model of software project development that takes into account all the optimal project invariants. First, the team establishes the objectives that need to achieve and sets strategies to achieve them. Secondly, the team identifies the risks that are anticipated in the project and seeks ways of resolving them when they arise. Identifying the risks of the project serves to ensure that proper strategies to mitigate them are defined to reduce the chances of failure in implementation. It is in the next phase that the team develops and tests the application in question. In the last stage, the developers plan for the next iteration of the project (Boehm, Turner, Lane & Supannika, 2013). The advantage of this project is that it is less people dependent and Sapient can use it to achieve better time management. The ability to identify various risk factors ensures that chances of project failure are reduced. This solves the common crisis that exists today as many organizations fail to deliver the projects as per the customer expectations. In conclusion, the agile project management approach is one of the superior project implementation methods that have its own benefits and challenges. Just like in Sapient, it helps organizations to achieve effectiveness in terms of cost, time, quality and quantity. Essentially, the method aims at reducing the cost and time, and optimizing quality and quantity of the project tasks. This method integrates the clients in the entire development process to ensure that the client needs are achieved and loyalty is prioritised. The challenges of this integrated approach arise if there is no effective communication or the various stakeholders are unavailable. To achieve effectiveness, there is need to reduce this dependency of the project on the stakeholders. Alternatively, Sapient can consider non agile methods such as the spiral method that is risk-driven and objective oriented. References Boehm, Barry, Turner, Richard, Lane, Jo Ann, & Koolmanojwong, Supannika. (2013). Embracing the Spiral Model: Creating Systems With the Incremental Commitment Spiral Model. Addison-Wesley Professional. Cobb, C. G. (2011). Making Sense of Agile Project Management: Balancing Control and Agility. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More