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June 16, 2022

5 Recommendations For Agile/DevOps Development – Methods To Maximize ROI Part 2

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Here Is The Follow Up To My Five Recommendations For Management Improvements. The Challenge Discussed In Part 1;
New Agile and DevOps frameworks challenge Government to modify the way they manage portfolio, programs, and projects and conduct development projects to maximize their return on investment (ROI). To meet these challenges, AMDEX fused best practices from Agile/ DevOps program/project management and Agile/Dev/Ops development and operations to optimize ROI.

Part 2:
Five Recommendations For Agile/DevOps Development Improvements
(1) Provide A Secure And Resilient Infrastructure That Minimizes Downtime
Build an architecture and infrastructure that quickly enables the Development Team to recover from downtime or issues. Provide tools that enable them to troubleshoot issues. Proactively monitor the infrastructure to verify applications are functioning as intended, if not generate a pull request to correct an error.

(2) Increase Release Frequency Or Velocity To Accelerate Delivery
A good measure of ROI is how fast the Development Team can release software or how much they can release in a given sprint. We increase release frequency by decreasing the sprint time or adding additional teams of developers. We can also help increase velocity using the methods listed below:

Keep planning light most epics can be planned in a single page. Stories can be planned on 3×5 card with acceptance criteria on the flip side
Breakdown stories in small manageable pieces that can be finished in a day or two
Develop effective and re-usable design templates
Create repositories of re-usable code to prevent re-work
Introduce new productivity apps to eliminate repetitive tasks, support brainstorming, build interfaces, and remember passwords
Use retrospectives to identify lessons learned how they can increase ROI
Keep the team motivated and communication lines open

(3) Accelerate Coordination And Collaboration At The Scrum Level
The Scrum Master can play an invaluable role in improving work relationships at every level such as between the Development Team and the Product Owner, as well as between Development Team members. Improved coordination and collaboration can result in improved knowledge sharing, quicker work flow, increased re-use of code, and improved quality.

(4) Increase The Productivity Of Virtual Developers
The Agile/DevOps framework calls for the Development Team to be co-located; however, this paradigm is not always possible for many reasons, including alternate work schedules and the need for some Team Members to serve a customer locally. A virtual team can be just as productive and cost-effective as a co-located team if they have: a unified vision of the project; tools to support virtual meetings; automated documentation and knowledge repositories; tools to search the repositories, and excellent version control.

(5) Retain Development Team Members
High turnover in the Development Team is a leading cause of poor productivity resulting in low ROI. Retain the Development Team using a combination of methods including:

Competitive compensation packages
Career development support
Training
Financial incentives
Positive work environment.
In summary, implementing any of these 10 tips can help increase your ROI quickly.

~ Paul T., AMDEX Project Manager