MO projects have been consistently delivered with CSTAR’s Agile processes; we have taken the Agile manifesto as a primary guide for delivering to our customers. In fact, we consider it to be key to our closely aligned values and culture with the MO. Its principles and values form the basis of our working practices and have resulted in enormous success across our projects, especially SW.
As our default delivery approach, Agile enables us to work collaboratively with our customers and their users throughout delivery. The MO would continue to benefit from this approach, enhanced by our established ‘One Team’ mentality. Through this approach, we seek to extend open lines of communication and collaboration, removing barriers to innovation.
The MO and CSTAR are highly aligned in this regard, both valuing:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools: Our philosophy is ‘minimal viable bureaucracy’, which we encourage on our projects. We mandate very little and allow innovation and adaptation of the way we work to improve efficiency. For example, whilst Scrum is our preferred approach, many teams tailor this and some adopt alternative approaches such as Kanban. Our knowledge of the SW project allows us to select whatever works best for the specific situation.
Working software over comprehensive documentation: Our default approach is to allow the source code to be the documentation, commented appropriately. We understand the overhead involved in maintaining accurate documentation and will create additional documentation only when it adds real value, for example by explaining a complex algorithm that is hard to decipher from the software alone, or when specifically requested by the customer (for example, for security assurance purposes).
Additionally, we will follow a BDD Agile software development process to ensure that User Stories and Acceptance Criteria are created in collaboration with key product stakeholders, where requirements and tests are written in plain English use cases to describe the context, event and outcome. This helps avoid the need for lengthy requirement documents and detailed test specifications / scripts.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation: We have succeeded in creating a ‘One Team’ culture with the MO, and will continue to cultivate this. This will start at contract award, during mobilisation, where we will include sessions for the whole CSTAR team to understand the MO vision for SW. Building this shared understanding and purpose is key to successful delivery, helping us to understand what really matters to the MO, including how to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
This approach reduces the risk of issues and misunderstandings further down the line. When issues do arise, we will resolve through communication and working together, rather than looking to assign blame and resort to contract negotiations. Throughout delivery we will request continuous feedback from the MO, for example during sprint reviews and demonstrations, and we use this to guide our delivery.
Responding to change over following a plan: Our preferred approach is to create a high-level roadmap in collaboration with key stakeholders. This is used to guide our priorities and allows for easy changes of direction at our sprint planning sessions without the need for expensive, detailed re-planning. We are always flexible to change and will analyse the impact the ensure all facts are considered when making the decision.
CSTAR has a strong track record of following the Agile manifesto’s principles, delivering successfully on a wide range of complex commercial and Government software and services delivery projects.
Grace Thiele 