Defect Buildup and Undone Items
There will always be defects to manage and resolve, no matter what software development approach will be used. One of the selling points of Agile is discovering defects early on in the project, so that when it gets closer to the end of its roadmap, critical issues have been already addressed by then.
Traditional projects separate product building from defect fixing in their project timeline. For Agile teams, there is added pressure to close defects alongside with development every sprint. Strategies, close collaborations, and working agreements should be determined in order to ensure that defects will be resolved, and that backlog items will be done.
Different Team Structure
Different roles in a team are necessary to make up the project. Each role has a set of responsibilities that will be difficult to be done by other people. Developers stick to development tasks, analysts stick to analysis tasks, and testers stick to testing tasks. Agile projects are different, in the way that there are usually only three recognized roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and developer. And “developers” is the umbrella term for any individual who has the skills necessary to make up the product.
While members are still expected to perform their functions in the team, cross-functional teams and multi-skilling are encouraged. Quality is also everyone’s responsibility, so even if they have a software tester in the team, everyone, even developers and data analysts, are expected to do their share of testing. People coming from traditional software development teams will find the change in culture and expectation challenging, and could take some time before they can get used to this.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: