Current Development Situation of SCRUM

Systems are developed in a highly complicated environment. The complexity is both within the development environment and the target environment. For example, when the air traffic control system development was initiated, three-tier client server systems and airline deregulation did not have to be considered. Yet, these environmental and technical changes occurred during the project and had to be taken into account within the system being built.
Environmental variables include:
·  Availability of skilled professionals - the newer the technology, tools, methods, and domain, the smaller the pool of skilled professionals.
·  Stability of implementation technology - the newer the technology, the lower the stability and the greater the need to balance the technology with other technologies and manual procedures.
·  Stability and power of tools - the newer and more powerful the development tool, the smaller the pool of skilled professionals and the more unstable the tool functionality.
·  Effectiveness of methods - what modeling, testing, version control, and design methods are going to be used, and how effective, efficient, and proven are they.
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·  Domain expertise - are skilled professionals available in the various domains, including business and technology.
·  New features - what entirely new features are going to be added, and to what degree will these fit with current functionality.
·  Methodology - does the overall approach to developing systems and using the selected methods promote flexibility, or is this a rigid, detailed approach that restricts flexibility.
·  Competition - what will the competition do during the project? What new functionality will be announced or released.
·  Time/Funding - how much time is available initially and as the project progresses?
How much development funding is available.
·  Other variables - any other factors that must be responded to during the project to ensure the success of the resulting, delivered system, such as reorganizations.
The overall complexity is a function of these variables : complexity = f(development environment variables + target environment variables) where these variables may and do change during the course of the project.
As the complexity of the project increases, the greater the need for controls, particularly the ongoing assessment and response to risk.
Attempts to model this development process have encountered the following problems:
·  Many of the development processes are uncontrolled. The inputs and outputs are either unknown or loosely defined, the transformation process lacks necessary precision, and quality control is not defined. Testing processes are an example.
·  An unknown number of development processes that bridge known but uncontrolled processes are unidentified. Detailed processes to ensure that a logical model contains adequate content to lead to a successful physical model is one such process.
·  Environmental input (requirements) can only be taken into consideration at the beginning of the process. Complex change management procedures are required thereafter.
Attempts to impose a micro, or detailed, methodology model on the development process have not worked because the development process is still not completely defined. Acting
5 as though the development process is defined and predictable results in being unprepared for the unpredictable results.