The advantages of Agile methodologies are splendid. Agile increases the engagement and collaboration between client and project teams which helps in understanding client requirement and vision in depth. The deliverables are usually defined in the period of 1-4 weeks which is quick and provides predictability to the en¬tire set of deliverables. The shorter sprints help in gaining the client confidence in team skill sets and capabilities. This also allows for a change to be introduced in short time rather than waiting towards the end of lifecycle and hence reduces cost and effort. This enhances product quality by early defect detection and remediation. The daily scrum meetings with entire stakeholders, including client, helps in introducing transparency and accountability in the deliverables.

Agile approach also adds business value to the product as sprints are delivered based on priority of requirements given by client. Beta testing can be done at every stage of sprint using client’s acceptance criteria. So the product can be shipped and marketed quickly. Real user feedback can be collected faster and incorporated in next sprints. It also helps in faster ROI. This increases customer satisfaction and calls for repeat business.

The methodology shift from traditional lifecycle to Agile has a significant impact on testing teams as well. The testing team strategy, mentality and approach needs to change drastically in Agile testing methods. In waterfall cycle approach test teams are involved towards the end of the life cycle to test the product. Where as in Agile, test teams are involved from the beginning of the project, they are involved right through requirement discussions; which helps them in writing test cases meeting product criteria. The test team engagement with over all team in Agile methodology is much cohesive than other methodology. This helps in better product quality, decrease in overall cost and increase in efficiency.

Agile as the word interprets makes the lifecycle more flexible to adapt to changes. Defects are re¬solved in short sprints and delivered to customer based on acceptance criteria. Since the overall agile approach calls for deeper engagement from customer and all stakeholders in project team the entire team owns the product quality and does not just rely on test teams to test and provide the defect report.

The test team engagement with over all team in Agile methodology helps in better product quality, decrease in overall cost and increase in efficiency

Minute Glitches in Agile

The main drawbacks of Agile development lie in the teams which are in multi site and multi time zone environment. It becomes difficult for team to have daily scrum meetings with people situated in different geography with different time zones as they need to have daily scrum meetings to track the progress. Agile approach may become complex with large code size and large teams. It also needs matured developers and testers to handle the project.

Alcatel–Lucent Agile methodology approach is driven from the top and institutionalized across the company. Rigorous training sessions are being given to all employees to change the mentality of development from traditional life cycle to Agile approach.

Alcatel-Lucent has done major IT transformations in last two years. Some of the transformations include network, data center transformation, modernizing applications, standard set of cloud based tools to HR, Procurement, Sales, Order Management, and Quality etc. The network transformation provides standardized LAN, WAN and voice solutions to have consistent services globally with the latest technology. Data Center Transformations included moving from current Data Center to FMO Data Center by virtualization, consolidating foot prints and moving to cloud based services for meeting customer demands on request.

Alcatel-Lucent is facilitating its employees by giving them access any where, anytime. Globally it has facilitated MDM, BYOD, CYOD to enhance productivity and efficiency of its employees.

Before any deployment globally,“GO” signal is given only after rigorous Beta, Pilot, scalability testing etc which are integral part of testing strategy. Real user feedback is collected via Pilot testing round and engaging sites for collecting feedback and increasing user awareness. The end goal is to have zero service interruptions while deploying new products/services.

The overall transformation with minimal service disruption using Agile approach has helped in increasing customer satisfaction rate.