What challenges does Adams-Woodford face as he develops his five year road map? When
Adams-Wood joined Pearson, the key strategy for digital learning software development
was the Waterfall model where Pearson team only does the detailed documentation of the
product development and core development was contracted to the external agencies.
Adams-Wood implemented the agile development methodology which involved focus on
short development iterations and communication over documentation instead of the
detailed documentation previously used. The main issue in front of Adams was to extend
and implement the Agile into other teams involved in developing SuccessMaker.
Implementing Agile system beyond software development alone required a huge amount
of change management and awareness sessions for the team members and acceptance of
the same was also a question for Adams. Agile implementation was a huge cultural shift
for the other teams as they were working on the same old waterfall model like
development team. Initially the development team also faced many issues for adapting to
the new process; an independent coach was brought to teach them about the new
methodology. Many of the individuals from QA team were not committed to the
fundamental tenets of Agile and were already trying to return to the previous practices.
Agile was more focused on customer requirements for competitive advantage and
customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. The
work was divided into small sprints which required daily meetings and discussions where
team focused on decision making and individual contribution was very important.
Although work was divided into short stories but they still cannot estimate…
