AGILE PROJECT DELIVERY MODEL IN AEC ENVIRONMENT

How is it possible to implement the project, which normally takes 6-7 months having almost twice shorter deadline?

TEBIN has faced with the challenge of implementation the greenfield industrial project of large tire manufacture plant for the international Client in extremely short terms.  There are more than 40 people from Ukraine (2 locations: Kyiv and Lviv), Poland (2 locations: Warsaw and on site) and France involved into the project. Inspired by progressive software industry, which works efficiently doing twice the work in half the time using agile methodologies, TEBIN also stepped into adaption these iterative approaches to our engineering realities.

HOW IT WORKS?

The most challenging in agile transformation is a change in people’s mindset. Until they think in a waterfall way, doing their own tasks seeing no overall picture, using agile tools and methods are not efficient enough. TEBIN follows the main idea, which is to perform work collaborating and communicating transparently within the team on a daily basis. Instead of emailing to and fro, people should see changes and actions required in real time.
By the way, our team agreed some basic work principles:
◆ to be acknowledged and well-prepared before each meeting;
◆ to give only constructive criticism;
◆ to keep a sustainable composition of team members in the Sprint.
In Agile we use quite an important term “Definition of Done”, which helps our team members to clearly understand when all conditions or acceptance criteria are met and ready to be accepted by a Client or Team.

AGILE IN PRACTICE

There are 4 SCRUM events which covers Agile iterative approach in practice:
◆ Sprint Planning. Project members are planning the activities to be executed during this period pulling out the tasks with the highest priority from the product backlog, which is a high-level list of activities sufficient to perform the project.
◆ Daily SCRUM. The team gathers on a daily basis for 15 min to discuss 3 important questions: What was done yesterday? What is going to be done today? Which obstacles the team faces with?
◆ Demo. After each Sprint the team presents the project increment inviting the Client to this event. Obtaining the feedback from the Client is the most important and valuable attribute of the event.
◆ Retrospective. The team reviews once again the result of the sprint and estimates if the sprint goal is achieved. It is important that the Team should leave the retrospective with some clear agreements, solutions or road map for the next sprint which reflects.

The procedure is being repeated iteratively until the product is ready.
We use a BIM-methodology in design, as it is data-driven and allows to apply SCRUM, one of the Agile frameworks, in order to work together in different locations and exchange data.

BENEFITS FOR CLIENTS

◆ Client’s engagement. Client is highly involved in every step of the project, collaborating closely with the Team;
◆ Transparency. Client is seeing the work in progress, involved throughout the project from the planning to the review sessions;
◆ Early and regular delivery. Client is seeing the new product increments frequently, with the high level of predictability;
◆ Possibilities for changes. Agile provides an opportunity to constantly refine and reprioritize the overall product backlog. New or changed backlog items can be planned for the next sprint, providing the opportunity to introduce changes within a few weeks;
◆ Focus on business value. Team allows the Client to determine the priority of tasks/epics;
◆ Continuous improvement. Reviewing regularly the work done during the retrospective session, the team improves the process of project execution.

HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

Agile and SCRUM are all about developing the projects more efficiently with even higher quality aiming the final product to be more competitive on the market.
◆ First of all, do not afraid to make experiments, changes. Implement changes after each Client’s feedback, each retrospective;
◆ The more iterations – the more chances for success;
◆ Involve all the stakeholders into the agile process. It works efficiently, when all the parties think agile;
◆ Implement an agile approach starting from commercial proposal and contract. Agile works better in Time & Material contracts. Try to avoid Fixed price contracts.