OT Session Understanding Project Dynamics

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TU5

OT2004 Session
Understanding Project Dynamics

An interactive simulation of project management - crash 20 projects in a day

Tuesday 30 March, 12:00

tutorial - 75 minutes

Jens Coldewey

Session results
When available, can be found at UnderstandingProjectDynamicsSessionResults??

Abstract
Systems Thinking is a technique to understand complex systems, such as software development projects. The books of Peter Senge and of Gerald Weinberg have introduced Systems Thinking into managment in general and software management in particular and all agile methodologies are based at least partly on understanding the system dynamics of software development.
This session teaches the system dynamic background of agile methodologies based on a computer-based project simulation ("Microworld"). Attendees learn the basic ideas of systems thinking and their application to software project management. The core of the session is a computer-based simulation of project management that allows the simulation and analysis of a software project in a short time. The underlying model is independent of any particular methodology but allows to experiment with and simulate aspects of several different agile and non-agile methodologies.
The attendees have a chance to experiment with the simulation on their own in a subsequent BOF session if they bring their laptops to the session: A series of three exercises lead from a basic understanding of the general dynamic to detailled experiments about issues such as refactoring, test management, and team size. The necessary software is free and will be distributed during the BOF session.

Audience
This tutorial aims at project managers, methodology experts and developers in agile projects. No particular knowledge is necessary, still professional experience with software projects and some knowledge of agile methodologies are helpful.

Benefits
Attendees will:

enhance their understanding of the dynamic relationships between different agile practices and the underlying project dynamics.

Attendees of the BOF session will:

be able to experiment with a broad variety of project parameters. The chance to force "project failure" without any harm provides an excellent learning environment for understanding the details of software development.

Materials

A short lecture on systems thinking and simulation models

A free copy of the simulation software and the used model to be distributed during the BOF session.

Jens Coldewey Coldewey Consulting	Jens Coldewey has consulted object-oriented projects for twelve years. After his Diploma (M.Sc.) in Computer Science he worked both as a designer and consultant in OO projects. He has introduced agile practices in numerous business projects for clients such as Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Dresdner Bank, the German Insurance Association, Generali Group, Zurich Financial Group, and Swiss Air Group (see Jim Highsmith: “Agile Software Development Ecosystems”, Chapter 11). His publications include the “Pattern Language for Accessing Relational Databases” in R.Martin, F. Buschmann, D. Riehle (eds.): Pattern Languages of Programming 3, Addison-Wesley and the paper “An Access Layer for Object- Oriented Databases” in M. Loomis, A. Chaundhri: (eds.) Experiences with Object Databases, Prentice-Hall. Jens Coldewey was program chair of the EuroPLoP ’98 conference and member of the program committee of the following conferences: PLoP ’98, PLoP ’99, EuroPLoP ’99, XP 2000, XP 2001, XP 2002, XP 2003, Agile Development Conference 2003, and OOPSLA 2003. Since 1999 he gives regular talks at the OOP conferences in Munich, one of the major European conferences on OO, about architecture, project management, and agile development. He gave a tutorial on “Choosing Database Technology” at Object World 98 and OOSPLA 2000, a tutorial on “Architecting Large Business Systems” at OOPSLA 2001 and he was co-organizer of several workshops on architecture on agile development at the OOPSLA conferences from 1999 until 2002.

[previous] [programme] [next]

TU5		OT2004 Session Understanding Project Dynamics
		An interactive simulation of project management - crash 20 projects in a day Tuesday 30 March, 12:00
		tutorial - 75 minutes
		Jens Coldewey

Session results	When available, can be found at UnderstandingProjectDynamicsSessionResults??
Abstract	Systems Thinking is a technique to understand complex systems, such as software development projects. The books of Peter Senge and of Gerald Weinberg have introduced Systems Thinking into managment in general and software management in particular and all agile methodologies are based at least partly on understanding the system dynamics of software development. This session teaches the system dynamic background of agile methodologies based on a computer-based project simulation ("Microworld"). Attendees learn the basic ideas of systems thinking and their application to software project management. The core of the session is a computer-based simulation of project management that allows the simulation and analysis of a software project in a short time. The underlying model is independent of any particular methodology but allows to experiment with and simulate aspects of several different agile and non-agile methodologies. The attendees have a chance to experiment with the simulation on their own in a subsequent BOF session if they bring their laptops to the session: A series of three exercises lead from a basic understanding of the general dynamic to detailled experiments about issues such as refactoring, test management, and team size. The necessary software is free and will be distributed during the BOF session.
Audience	This tutorial aims at project managers, methodology experts and developers in agile projects. No particular knowledge is necessary, still professional experience with software projects and some knowledge of agile methodologies are helpful.
Benefits	Attendees will: enhance their understanding of the dynamic relationships between different agile practices and the underlying project dynamics. Attendees of the BOF session will: be able to experiment with a broad variety of project parameters. The chance to force "project failure" without any harm provides an excellent learning environment for understanding the details of software development.
Materials	A short lecture on systems thinking and simulation models A free copy of the simulation software and the used model to be distributed during the BOF session.