5.a) Explain Adaptive Software Development (ASD) Model with a sketch.
Answer:
• Adaptive Software Development (ASD) has been proposed by Jim Highsmith as a technique for building complex software and systems.
• The philosophical underpinnings of ASD focus on human collaboration and team self-organization.
• He defines an ASD “life cycle” that incorporates three phases, speculation, collaboration, and learning.
• During speculation, the project is initiated and adaptive cycle planning is conducted.
• Adaptive cycle planning uses project initiation information—the customer’s mission statement, project constraints (e.g., delivery dates or user descriptions), and basic requirements—to define the set of release cycles (software increments) that will be required for the project.
• No matter how complete and farsighted the cycle plan, it will invariably change.
• Based on information obtained at the completion of the first cycle, the plan is reviewed and adjusted so that planned work better fits the reality in which an ASD team is working.
• Motivated people use collaboration in a way that multiplies their talent and creative output beyond their absolute numbers.
• This approach is a recurring theme in all agile methods. But collaboration is not easy. It encompasses communication and teamwork, but it also emphasizes individualism, because individual creativity plays an important role in collaborative thinking.
• It is, above all, a matter of trust. People working together must trust one another to
(1) criticize without animosity,
(2) assist without resentment,
(3) work as hard as or harder than they do,
(4) have the skill set to contribute to the work at hand, and
(5) communicate problems or concerns in a way that leads to effective action.
• As members of an ASD team begin to develop the components that are part of an adaptive cycle, the emphasis is on “learning” as much as it is on progress toward a completed cycle.
• In fact, Highsmith argues that software developers often overestimate their own understanding (of the technology, the process, and the project) and that learning will help them to improve their level of real understanding.
• ASD teams learn in three ways: focus groups, technical reviews, and project postmortems.
• The ASD philosophy has merit regardless of the process model that is used.
• ASD’s overall emphasis on the dynamics of self-organizing teams, interpersonal collaboration, and individual and team learning yield software project teams that have a much higher likelihood of success.