DSDM: The Best Partner for Best Practice

Case study - DSDM + PRINCE2 + eXtreme Programming (XP)

There have been many articles promoting the use of a single project method as the answer to specific scenarios, and much has been written to support each author’s choice whilst dismissing their “competition”. To confuse the reader further, the methods being promoted often sit at opposing ends of the method spectrum – for example PRINCE2 at one “extreme” with eXtreme Programming (XP) at the other.

To an uninformed reader, the lasting impression is that these methods are mutually exclusive – i.e. that a project can either be Agile or it can have strong Project Management, but not both.

The reality is that this “either/or” decision is inappropriate and unnecessary – the chosen method or “technology” should not force such a business driven decision. It is important to make business driven decisions to select the appropriate, pragmatic combination of approaches that will provide the organisation with significantly more in-depth strength than opting for a single method – and will allow the organisation to protect their investment in existing methods. Such a combined approach allows an organisation to build on its existing strengths and personnel skills, rather than changing everything to fit around the latest high-profile method.

This Case Study is based around a recent 18 month international DSDM programme run by RADTAC. A large multi-national organisation with a predominantly traditional (but unstructured) background of project management and delivery recognised the need for projects to be delivered more quickly and following a standard approach to project management. A change programme was started. The initial focus was to identify an Agile approach that was seen as “corporate strength”, and to agree a standard Project Management approach to be used throughout the organisation, on projects of all types and sizes.

The Project Management decision proved relatively simple, since PRINCE2 was recognised as the de-facto standard. However, the company decided to tailor PRINCE2 to ensure it was applied pragmatically, and to support this tailoring with a major Project Management training programme.

The decision on which Agile approach to adopt proved more complex, since there are now a number of Agile methods available, all similar yet all different. A small number of isolated projects had already been started using XP. Although this proved extremely popular with the developers, there were a number of concerns raised both at Project Management level and at Senior Business Management level. It was felt that XP alone offered insufficient advice and guidance for Project Managers. Neither did XP offer the clear Systems Delivery Lifecycle, of processes and products required to meet the quality standards required by the business. At the most senior level, some of the XP ideas and practices were seen as “risky” and simply not strong enough in isolation for use in the large corporate arena.

After some consideration and evaluation of various Agile methods, DSDM was chosen by the company as their corporate Agile approach. This important decision was based on a number of factors:

DSDM is based on working best practice (similar to PRINCE2)

DSDM provides a framework, rather than a prescriptive method (similar to PRINCE2)

DSDM has been in use since 1995 and has a demonstrable track record of success

DSDM is proven at the large corporate level

DSDM provides sufficient process to ensure predictability

DSDM continues to be updated by its members, ensuring an up-to-date approach at all times - and at no cost to the organisation

DSDM and PRINCE2 is a tried-and-tested combination

However, having selected DSDM as the corporate Agile approach, it was also recognised that XP provided greater depth for detailed development techniques and the organisation was keen to continue to exploit these practices and the staff familiarity with XP. Therefore a secondary decision was made that XP would provide the final piece of the jigsaw, to plug in the detailed Agile development techniques. This also exploited an additional benefit of choosing DSDM - the combination of DSDM and XP also being a tried-and-tested approach.

The following series of diagrams illustrates the strengths of each approach and how these were combined to provide “corporate strength” across the spectrum of projects.

DSDM in Isolation

DSDM covers both Project Management and Delivery

For some organisations, DSDM alone may be sufficient to cover both Project Management and Delivery

DSDM is adaptable for all types of project (large/small, web/non-web, business/IT) – but may sometimes be perceived as too chaotic (by traditionalists) or too bureaucratic (by extreme Agilists)

A2. Prince 2 in Isolation

PRINCE2 focuses exclusively on Project Management - of any Business or IT project

PRINCE2 needs to work with complementary approaches to actually deliver the project

A3. XP (v1) in Isolation

XP focuses on software engineering practices, with very little help for Project Managers

XP needs additional approaches to manage the project and provide overall project governance

XP is often perceived at corporate level to be chaotic and non-scalable

A4. DSDM with XP: Enterprise-strength XP

DSDM is used as a wrapper for XP, to provide process and control that is otherwise missing

This combination addresses many resistors to XP (e.g. manageability, scalability etc.) without constraining the benefits of XP

XP adds contemporary Agile software engineering practices to DSDM

This combination is recognised as “Enterprise XP”, providing corporate strength Agile, and delivering the benefits of XP within a DSDM management process

Control and Agility - the best of both worlds

A5. DSDM with Prince and XP: Strength in depth

PRINCE2 provides the overall Project Management and governance processes

DSDM used as a wrapper for XP to provide process and control within PRINCE2

Selected XP techniques used within DSDM for software engineering aspect of delivery

DSDM “talks both languages” and bridges the potential gulf between PRINCE2 and XP – between structured and “Agile”

When using such a combination of approaches, it is important to be pragmatic, to ensure that the interfaces between methods are clearly understood, and that any overlap or inconsistency is addressed.

So, for example, when using DSDM with XP, there is an inconsistency in the use of the term “Iteration” – in DSDM, an iteration is the cycle of events that happen within a timebox, in XP an iteration is what DSDM would call a timebox. In the Case Study organisation, when inconsistencies arose it was agreed to use the DSDM terminology in preference to XP. This meant that XP experts had to get used to saying “Timebox”, rather than “Iteration” and to use the word “iteration” in its DSDM sense but within a week or so, the value of having a single clear set of terminology and definitions was recognised. And apart from a few minor terminology issues, DSDM with XP provides an excellent solution.

Similarly, when combining DSDM with PRINCE2, it is important to clarify exactly what in DSDM will be treated as a PRINCE2 stage. If the wrong decision is made, the formality of PRINCE2 is at risk of compromising the inherent agility of DSDM. So typically, you do not treat each timebox as a separate stage but rather each increment. In the Case Study organisation, this decision also needed to be reflected in the Quality Gate process – ensuring that the quality gates and Prince stages provided the correct balance of control and agility.

In the commercial world, it is somewhat unusual to find PRINCE2 and XP as co-existing mandated approaches. It seems that when they are in direct contact with one another, the formality of PRINCE2 often raises major concerns or even revolt in the XP community, and the agility of XP often causes real worry to Project Managers who have a formal Prince background.

A widely-recognised benefit of using DSDM as the Agile “glue” in this combination of methods is that DSDM very comfortably talks PRINCE2 language, and without causing any major concerns to either PRINCE2 or DSDM. Indeed, this combination provides DSDM with extra-strength management.

Equally, DSDM can work very easily with XP to provide DSDM with extra-strength delivery capability. The perceived conflict between PRINCE2 and XP disappears, proving that DSDM is, in reality, the Best Partner for Best Practice.

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