How are Agile Development Approaches and Process Quality Requirements Compatible with Each Other?
This question was the core of a joint impulse lecture of Tagueri AG and CARIAD SE on 01 July 2021.
Agile development approaches and process quality guidelines such as Automotive SPICE are becoming increasingly relevant in the automotive industry. These trends are currently being discussed in many different ways, especially with regard to their compatibility.
As part of the virtual “Quality-Conference” at CARIAD, two experienced consultants from Tagueri AG, Matthias Bruske (Automotive SPICE, Cologne Office) and David Krusel (Agile, Stuttgart Office), spoke on this area of tension.
Classic Preconceptions about the Possible Combinations of Agile Approaches and Automotive SPICE
The 65 participants were given profound insights into Tagueri’s project experience on the topics of ASPICE and Agile. Matthias and David addressed the most common misunderstandings and discussed possible combinations of Agile approaches and Automotive SPICE with the participants using practical examples.
In an intensive exchange the following classical prejudices were worked out and discussed together with the CARIAD colleagues:
• “Agile means we don’t need documentation at all, while ASPICE requires a lot of unnecessary documentation”
• “ASPICE requires a waterfall model and strict execution of plans, while Agile envisions iterative work”
• “Agile teams don’t plan, they always improvise and they don’t have “processes” or anything like that”
• “Let’s focus on development first and let’s document everything we need to do at the end of the project”
Obviously, these typical prejudices could be refuted in the intensive discussion. Nevertheless, the developers often lack concrete arguments in everyday project work to be able to immediately dispel such misconceptions.
For the future, the CARIAD colleagues can now fall back on the documents presented in the lecture.
Success Factors of ASPICE Projects in Classical and Agile Contexts
Afterward, speakers from Tagueri AG shared their experiences on success factors from ASPICE projects in classic and agile contexts. The focus was on:
• Requirements Management
• Testing
• Project Management
• Supporting processes (Quality Assurance, Configuration Management, Problem & Change Management)
In the course of the discussion, both specific and general questions arose. In order to discuss the points that remained open, a further two-hour Q&A session was arranged the following week. Of course, the speakers from Tagueri AG not only addressed the questions from the keynote speech but also took up other topics requested by the participants.
The Tagueri AG enjoyed the professional exchange with CARIAD colleagues from various fields, who were all united by their interest in high-quality development and agile working methods. In addition to the mutual exchange of experiences, the focus was on networking among the CARIAD colleagues, who have agreed on follow-ups in the coming weeks.
Feedbacks on the Lecture
The feedback from the organizers and participants was also very positive:
“As one of the Quality Conference organizers, I was very happy that we were able to win Tagueri AG for a thematic block. The presentation was met with great interest. Another positive aspect was that colleagues increasingly dealt with the topic of SAFe and ASPICE afterward.”
– Sahar Moussa, Quality Assurance Expert, and Provisional Assessor at CARIAD SE
Both in the keynote speech itself and in the subsequent “open consultation”, live surveys were used by the Tagueri speakers to capture the mood of the participants. A retrospective was also conducted at the end.
This is particularly important for remote events in order to enable a focused exchange and to bring all participants along. In the course of the retrospective, open questions were also recorded in order to be able to revisit them afterward.
Tagueri AG would like to thank the organizing team for the excellent preparation of the event and is looking forward to possible continuation formats!
If you are also interested in an interactive exchange format within your organization, please contact Dustin Schönrock from Tagueri AG to discuss your ideas. We will be happy to advise you on a target-oriented implementation at your company.