Paper (58): Near-Site Agile: Scaling Agile with Real-World Constraints.
Abstract: This paper will provide a description of Near Site Agile and it’s advantages for scaling custom software development, especially for public sector clients. Near Site Agile splits agile teams so PMs and BAs work onsite with the customer, and developers and testers work from nearby delivery centers where labor rates are significantly lower. This allows the developers to travel to client site as needed for agile ceremonies and client relationship buidling, while also providing the scalability of an outsourced delivery center for team cost, flexibility and crosstraining. The trick is staying “agile” despite the lack of colocation and resulting pressures for both clients and contractors to matrix or departmentalize project teams. Lessons learned will be drawn and evaluated from IBM’s project of the year winner for project management, Electronic Records Administration 2. This project used Near-Site Agile to deliver cutting edge custom cloud-based appications to process and access petabytes of data for the National Archives despite significant budget, facility, and schedule constraints.
Biography: Mr. Johnson, is a Co-Founder of oneYear LLC, a software product company operating in the DMV area focused on building innovative new products and making a strong positive social impact in local communities.
Prior to co-founding oneYear LLC, Mr. Johnson was a Senior Agile Project Manager with IBM, where he led multiple development teams building applications for the National Archives Records Administration (NARA) to process, store, and search of government records. He provided strategic consulting and management of agile development teams to forecast and defend budgets, evolve current systems, and pilot cutting edge big data search applications to support the potential hundreds of petabytes of electronic records expected by 2020.
Mr. Johnson worked as an Management Consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led projects for the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy from optimizing site investments and posture for Reserve forces, to developing award-winning project analysis and portfolio management software to optimize billions in shore energy investments. He has also worked as an airport master planning consultant for Ricondo & Associates, Inc.; a researcher for the UMD Institute for Systems Research; and independent branch operator for College Works Painting, Inc. He was published in the International Conference on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), 2008 for his work on Concurrent Behavioral Modeling of the Panama Canal operations. Mr. Johnson holds a Masters in Systems Engineering and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland; as well as a graduate certificate from the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program at Penn State University.
