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15 - The Payoffs and Perils of Offshored Agile Projects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

John Watkins
Affiliation:
IBM Software Group, UK
Peter Kingston
Affiliation:
Contract Test Manager
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Summary

SYNOPSIS

This case study describes my experiences of working on a project where we combined two potentially highly beneficial, but apparently incompatible, approaches to developing software: offshoring and agile methods.

Although ultimately successful, with the delivery and use of the system developed using this combined approach, there were a number challenges to overcome (such as the issues of not having a co-located team, of culture, of language and its interpretation, and of reliable reporting and estimation).

In addition to describing the solutions to the challenges of agile offshore projects, I also review the positive aspects of the project (such as reductions in effort, cost, and timescales; extended development and testing time; and establishing a process for future agile offshore projects).

Introduction

My name is Peter Kingston and at the time of this case study I was working on a contract as a test manager for a financial products company, The Remortgage Corporation (TRC).

My career in IT spans more than twenty-five years, beginning as a software developer before moving into systems analysis and then management. For most of the last decade, I have been a professional software test consultant and have a wide variety of experience of the software testing industry. I have gained much expertise from working as a test analyst, test manager, and test consultant in a variety of industries including finance, retail, government, and petro-chemical. In addition, I am an accredited provider of the ISTQB Foundation Course in Software Testing [42].

Type
Chapter
Information
Agile Testing
How to Succeed in an Extreme Testing Environment
, pp. 103 - 114
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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