Reflective Practices in Agile development of the On-Demand Virtual Lab—Phi Bang Nguyen
Reflective Practices in Agile development of the On-Demand Virtual Lab
The focus for this paper is to investigate reflective practices in an Agile software development project – The On-Demand Virtual Lab. It aims to understand how Agile development has been used in a technically complex ‘proof-of-concept’ project.
This paper uses a systems thinking approach to understand the components of this On-Demand Virtual Lab. Both using a hard systems approach to understand the technical issues, as well as a soft systems approach to understand the personal issues.
The investigation found that there were weaknesses in understanding the complexity and length of this project. There was a lack of support from management, as well as a lack of knowledge transfer.
Finally, the paper presents two reflective tools, known as Agile-Jazz and Agile-ECG that have been demonstrated to be beneficial for teams involved in complex projects. Agile-Jazz is an enhanced management structure, which brings stakeholders together to reflect and understand the problems, and seek solutions together. Agile-ECG classifies the reflection into Emotions, Cognition and Growth – providing a convention to reflection and aiding discussion within the team.
Author: Phi Bang Nguyen
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)
