Agile development has been applied to software development projects for quite some time. In a white paper that was first published by Robert Holler in the May 2006 issue of Better Software Magazine, entitled "Five Myths of Agile Development," Mr. Holler addressed the following myths with respect to software development projects.
- Agile Development is Undisciplined
- Agile Teams Do Not Plan
- Agile Development is Not Predictable
- Agile Development Does Not Scale
- Agile Development is Just Another Fad
In the past couple of years, we've begun to apply agile methods to business intelligence and data warehousing (BI/DW) projects. Without a doubt, I've heard many of the same things addressed in Holler's white paper said about Agile BI from a number of sources. Interestingly, when speaking with folks who are both familiar and unfamiliar with Agile BI, yet another set of misconceptions has arisen. As a contributing architect in the development of Agile BI methods, I've compiled a list of Agile BI myths. As I sit here writing this blog post I'm not sure if I'll end up with ten, twelve or fifteen. I encourage you to post your "Myths" here on my blog so we can discuss their validity. Who knows what I'll hear next! At least for now, my list includes:
- Agile BI is radical and new
- There is no need to produce documentation when using Agile BI methods
- Agile BI methods do not support sound BI/DW architecture principles
- Agile BI displaces the software development lifecycle (SDLC) in its entirety
- Agile software development methods can be applied without modification to BI/DW projects
- When working as a part of an agile BI/DW team, anyone can work on anything, without consideration for roles and skills
- Agile BI only works for small teams
- Improvement in team velocity is all that matters
- Agile BI methods only work well with seasoned, highly talented and experienced team members
- All BI/DW tasks can start simultaneously because waterfall methods are no longer used
- The BI/DW team must be collocated in order for agile methods to be successful
- There is little to no correlation between story point estimating and project management estimating and budgeting
Look for future posts as I dispel each of these myths as we head down "The Path to Agility."
Posted September 30, 2010 9:38 AM
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How about:
Agile BI development cannot be done in large organisations.
Agile BI ignores governance and QA processes.
As an organisation we've been using the best bits of Agile development together with some waterfall (PRINCE2) techniques for years. Today I'm faced with such a time constrained challenge that I'm completely discarding our usual best practice approach in favour of a wholly a Agile project. There are a couple more risks that the client will need to sign off but compared with simply not being able to deliver these are minimal.
I'm looking forwards to the rest of the series as I believe that BI fundamentally requires agility and Agile like development, it is only the legacy practices of IT departments that force BI projects to adopt anything like a waterfall approach.
Tony Harper
BI Capability Lead
Bluefin Solutions
twitter: bluefin_bi