Question

How Agile can be used for the bottom-up planning process (what steps) and the rationales (why) of identifying and selecting Information System (IS) development project.

Answer 1

Let us understand the bottom-up planning process.

This process is usually employed wherein the Problem is broken down to its smallest scenario (Realistic), solutions are generated for this micro level scenario ,tested approved, then these scenarios are merged to arrive at the final solution.

Now how Agile helps in bottom-up planning process is given below

• Agile methodology works when there is an incremental and repetitive/iterative approach to design
• In bottom up approach this works because of the process being broken down into smaller sub processes
• Lot of interaction happens between the cross functional team leading to a sense of involvement in designing something big
• Documentation in this method is that of a big priority so people get to work more on actual developments
• This Process has a robust testing cycle which leads to proper checking of the development and if any bugs are found or the there is a change of perspective --Then these changes can be accommodated then and there itself and it will be resolved within less time period
• All further developments are carried out further based on the UAT (user acceptance testing)
• Also there are metrics such as Drag factors,velocity,No.of unit tests etc. that help in analysing the current status of the project.

Below are the rationales on which information system development projects are identified

The requirement for these projects can come from both bottom up & Top down approaches

But to evaluate and select an IS development project depends on below factors

• From whom the requirement has come and what is the nature of the requirement, whether it is strategic,departmental or integrations with the existing systems
• Assessing the present condition of the organization (Financial,resources,time lines etc.)
• classifying and creating a descending orders of the requirements based on the needs of the organisation by having a proper meetings involving all stake holders.
• Selection of Development Project depends on the evaluation criteria which again varies from industry to industry
• Some of the criteria that are used are,  

Value Stream mapping (VSM)

Cost benefit analysis

Resource availability and time line study

Comparison with available case studies

So above are the rationale for identifying & selecting IS development Project