Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The requirements are captured in the cards and pinned on the card wall. The
column would be maintained on the wall until its functionality is realized and will
be removed on the release of the software. Changing a requirement means
changing a card on the wall. The tracing of requirements through software
development would depend on the specific software development methodology
implemented in the project.
15.10 Crystal Clear
Crystal methodologies believe that more rigor in software development is required
as the project size increases. They consist of four methodologies coded by color,
namely, Crystal Clear (no color), Crystal Yellow, Crystal Orange and Crystal Red.
A Crystal Clear project would have about 6 team members, a Crystal Yellow
project would have around 20 team members, Crystal Orange project would have
about 40 team members and a Crystal Red project would have about 80 team
members. As can be seen, a Crystal Red project would need the maximum rigor.
The rigor needed would progressively diminish in Orange, Yellow and Clear
projects.
There are some common aspects in all Crystal project types. They all utilize an
incremental software development life cycle. Each increment is limited to a duration
of four calendar months with most of the iterations falling between one and three
calendar months. Face-to-face communication is the preferred method of commu-
nication for establishing requirements or requesting changes. The customer or
customer representative is expected to be co-located with the development team.
Of these, the Crystal Clear methodology is considered to be agile. Crystal Clear
methodology consists of 6-10 team members. Crystal Clear has the following
properties:
1. Workshops for transferring domain knowledge to developers
2. Incremental development life cycle with frequent deliveries of usable software
3. Osmotic communication, by customer being co-located with the development
team, or in other words, close interaction with users
4. Advocates automated tests, at least, in regression testing
5. The iteration is to be limited to a maximum of three calendar months.
Crystal clear insists on testing tools, configuration management tools and use of
white boards in place of documents. White boards would contain the design of the
proposed software as well as meeting summaries.
The crystal method uses eight practices in each increment to develop software.
These are staging, revision and review, monitoring, parallelism and flux,
holistic diversity strategy, methodology-tuning technique, user viewings, and
reflection workshops.
During staging, the next increment would be planned. The team selects the
requirements they can deliver in three calendar months and schedules the work.
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