Quality
There are a few considerations for managing quality in PRINCE2 Agile that we’ll review here.
Never Compromise Quality
Agile practitioners are usually concerned about quality, and the delivery method also helps them; for example, fine tuning is usually left for the end in predictive approaches, where external pressures do not allow the developers do so, and as a result, quality is compromised. In Agile, small pieces of product are delivered incrementally, which provides the chance to spend enough time on all quality activities. So, the first thing is consider is that quality is not compromised in Agile, and it should be reflected in the PRINCE2 Agile as well.
Besides the positive impact of using Agile on quality, there are negative impacts as well: The architecture of the software is formed gradually, and there’s a chance it’s not as well-formed as one that is designed carefully upfront. That’s why Agile projects use continuous refactoring to overcome that problem. Refactoring is when you improve the code and its architecture without changing its behavior.
Continuous and Integrated Quality Activities
The other difference in Agile is that quality activities are not separate from other types of activities. Team members are usually focused on pieces of product instead of specialist activities, and members with all kinds of expertise work together until the item is “done”. The quality activities are done continuously, and are integrated with other activities. This should be reflected in the Quality Management Strategy. Another consequent of this is that the customer should be available to the project (e.g., for user acceptance testing), which should be reflected in the Communication Management Approach, and the role descriptions captured in the Project Brief and Project Initiation Documentation.
Continuous testing requires effort, and therefore, it’s required to have automated tests as much as possible. This is also something that should be considered in the Quality Management Strategy, if it’s applicable to all products, or in the quality method section of related Product Description otherwise.
Other Quality Methods
It’s also common to use Test-Driven Development or Behavior-Driven Development in Agile environments, which are various forms of quality method.
Definition of Done
If the requirements are well-defined, they will be broken down into many small functional, independent items that require a more or less similar set of steps. These steps can be documented in a Definition of Done, and usually include the quality criteria. In other words, the quality criteria can be unified and stored in a Definition of Done in PRINCE2 Agile.
See Also
External Links
- Quality theme in PRINCE2 wiki
Written by Nader K. Rad
This is (and will be) a work in progress: More details will be added in the future, depending on the feedback.
This wiki is developed and managed by an accredited trainer, independent of AXELOS. While aligned with their guidelines, it’s not an official resource.