Gain insights into applying Agile methods in large projects and teams. Explore challenges, best practices, and strategies to secure organizational buy-in for successful implementation.

Agile methods allow us to handle rapidly changing requirements, typical in most software projects. These methods are conventionally used for small teams and software projects. However, in this course, you will learn how to effectively apply Agile methods to large software projects and large teams.

You’ll start with a recap of the Agile Manifesto, followed by a description of the common challenges associated with Agile methods in the context of large software projects. You’ll learn how Agile approaches have been applied to build responsibility. Next, you’ll learn about approaches to apply Agile methods in the processes. You will then learn best practices for applying Agile methods such as software testing, and software architecture. 

This course provides insights into successful and unsuccessful approaches to introducing agility to teams, processes, and technology aspects of large projects. It also teaches strategies to secure organizational buy-in for agility in the context of large projects and teams.

Applying Agile Methods to Large Teams and Projects

# Summary
When the author talked to colleagues about this project, a lot of them said that they would also have liked to work on a project like this and that it sounded like fun. They were right, it was a lot of fun to work on this project, but it was not so much fun at the beginning. We had to work very hard to convince everybody that it was a single project and that we could only succeed if we all worked together.

The author's takeaway is that there is a deep relationship between the willingness to change and the experience of having failed before. A lot of changes would have been almost impossible to introduce if this project had not been a second attempt at a failed project. The main reason for this is that people are generally more open to change when they have reached their limit for suffering from their old habits. Before they reach this limit, they will do things as they have always done before. So, the fact that the failure of the first attempt at this project brought almost everyone involved to their limit of suffering helped teams to work in a more pragmatic way with other departments, external teams, and the customer. 

Instead, it's generally a good mindset to be open to change, even if things are not that bad, and that we give new approaches a try before condemning them.

Let’s review what we've learned from the different experiences in the case study.


Chapter Wrap Up

Let’s review what we've learned from the different experiences in the case study.

Introduction to the Course

Agility and Largeness

Dealing with Large Teams

Dealing with the Process

Dealing with the Technology

Dealing with the Company

Putting It All Together: A Project Report (Case Study)

Final Thoughts

Chapter Wrap Up

Summary