Category: Agile Development

Agile Project Management methodology is making waves in the project management world of software development. Many big names in the software industry are using it and have success stories to share. So in this blog I am explaining how Agile project management methodology attacks the inherent weak-links in SAP projects.

I had an interesting exchange with a friend of mine the other day about the Agile methodology. His impression of Agile was very different than mine, and I think it's because he's never seen a team that properly organized itself for a project using sprint zero. "I'm working on a project using Agile, are you familiar with that?" I asked. "Oh, sure," he said. "That's the methodology where the coders try to incorporate every little change into the project whenever the client suggests them, resulting in complete chaos." I blinked. Were we talking about the same methodology? My friend explained further. "I know that's exactly the opposite of what Agile is supposed to be, but in practice that's what you get," he said matter-of-factly. It was at that moment that I realized that my friend, who works with a fair number of programmers, has never seen an Agile project which started on the right foot . . . one that included a sprint zero. [2]Sprints are the very essence of Agile projects, and they are well-named: they're designed to be short, fast, and with a clearly-defined finish line. That finish line is a specific, usable ...

A new Forrester Research report finds that custom-built applications are gradually succumbing to software-as-a-service alternatives. It’s not the end of in-house developed apps, but change is coming.

IT operations process frameworks like ITIL help us to define processes, but they don’t provide much in the way of guidance with respect to managing the operational work associated with these processes. While IT service desks can manage activities such as change requests, there is still a lot of work done by administrators, etc., that [...]

In Yankee Group’s June 2011 survey on Cloud Computing adoption 55% of IT Decision-Makers cited a costly and difficult migration as a key barrier to adoption of cloud services, the third most mentioned obstacle after existing IT investments (61%) and a lack of confidence in data protection (58%).

SAP executives talk a lot about how they’re talking to their customers. One of the ways they point to is the new agile, or lean, software development methodology. Execs say it’s helping customers get software and enhancements they want faster than ever before. It doesn’t always take being a Colgate-Palmolive or a Coca-Cola to get into that process. For Marc Rosson and the Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD), his “in” was simply raising his hand.

Agile methodology is a new Buzz word that started few years ago and many Organizations are moving into this space. I had seen and heard various teams assume Agile will make software implementations quicker and faster. This can be true if all pieces of puzzle align perfectly. But ... How?

The recently announced SAP NetWeaver Gateway enables accessing Business Suite data via REST and OData. You may wonder why we opted for OData instead of brewing our own dialect for REST service. Here's why.

SAP has announced plans to interconnect its software with Microsoft's development platforms, making it easier for .NET and Azure developers to build applications that feed into SAP's fleet of business intelligence programs. The collaboration, announced on Wednesday at SAP's Sapphire Now conference in Orlando, Florida, sees the companies tighten a historical collaboration. The goal of the two firms is to make it easier for .NET developers to access SAP applications without needing a fine-grained understanding of the programs.

Enterprise software giant SAP is about halfway through what may be the largest conversion ever to Agile development practices and it's going well so far, with product release cycles taking about half the time previously needed, according to a recent interview with Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe.

Early in 2011 SAP release Agile Business Add-on to ASAP methodology that implements SCRUM based iterative process for SAP implementation projects to achieve faster return on investment through incremental releases of functionality to business and close engagement of business users. Learn more about the Agile Business Add-on in this blog post.

Scrum is widely and successfully used to improve time to market, effectiveness, productivity, quality and team motivation in the software delivery process. This Agile methodology is mostly based on the Lean and Agile principles, resulting in faster results, more transparency and increased flexibility. Now Xebia and SAP jointly offer a unique t...

Xebia and SAP Nederland have started an exclusive partnership. SAP logoThey have jointly developed a unique SAP Agile training that give SAP implementation partners insight in the Scrum methodology and how this can be applied to implementation in a SAP environment. This method uses the Lean and Agile principles and enables implemenation partner to implement Scrum at their customers. It leads to faster results, more transparancy and higher flexibility.. SAP logoThey have jointly developed a unique SAP Agile training that give SAP implementation partners insight in the Scrum methodology and how this can be applied to implementation in a SAP environment. This method uses the Lean and Agile principles and enables implemenation partn...

These days, you can’t go to an SAP show without hearing keynotes referring to “Agile” approaches. Hop onto Twitter or the SAP Community Network, and you’re likely to stumble on a conversation or blog about Agile development. But does the talk about “Agile” justify the hype? And what relevance does Agile have in an SAP context?

Businesses have begun to realize that enterprise standard BI projects need to be flexible and agile in order to react and adapt to information requirements that seem to change with ever-increasing speed, according to Forrester Research VP and principal analyst Boris Evelson.