Development sprints are organised around a Kanban methodology. This approach provides manageable work-in-progress lists with new items being regularly pulled from the backlog as existing items are completed. This provides excellent visibility for the project team whilst not mandating fixed sprint completion dates which can negatively impact on productivity. Whilst Kanban is technically a continuous delivery methodology, we generally aim for 2-3 week releases, which can be accelerated or extended as required. Compared to Scrum, Kanban is best suited to environments with well defined requirements but where priorities continually change.

All 3 Tier Technology software is developed in-house, ensuring complete control over standards and quality. Developers work collaboratively, with a clear understanding of what is being built and why. Well established communication channels with all stakeholders ensure the benefits of agile development are fully realised.

Developer lead testing occurs in-house and is tightly coupled with established standards and templates. 3 Tier Technology ensures the project team understands Agile – requiring iterative and incremental testing to occur throughout the project. Every development sprint is delivered for User Acceptance Testing, and any feedback informs subsequent development sprints. Iterative development and testing provides for evolving requirements while ensuring the quality of the final product.

Outputs from testing and review sessions provide direct input into future development sprints and regular stand-up meetings ensure that changes can be captured in real-time as work progresses. Embracing change is a key tenant of agile development, but it is essential that excellent governance and tracking systems are in place so that any budgetary, time frame and system stability implications are understood and agreed to. 3 Tier Technology works proactively with the project team to ensure changes are incorporated while managing any impact on the project.

Leveraging the Kanban methodology, User Stories, Tasks and Bugs can be rapidly reorganised to ensure that iterative development sprints focus on what is most important at any given time. Real-time agile story boards are used to ensure visibility of backlogs and current work plans.