Agile development is now mainstream, and there are hundreds of books out there about the subject. However, none has faced as big a challenge in agile projects as Tamed agility regarding the “down-to-earth” issue of budget management in agile projects.
The budget problem issue arises from the fact that agile projects inherently have characteristics that in principle do not fit in the traditional fixed price model of budgeting, since both the iterative development process and continuous refinement mindset make the budget forecast a difficult task, usually surpassing initial estimates, overblowing the financials of the software provider or the project sponsor.
To address this important issue, the authors propose a model, Advantage, after evaluating the pros and cons of several traditional models (fixed price, time and materials, pay-per-use, and so on). Half of the book is dedicated to evaluating the best way to perform a deal between the client and the agile software provider, in such a way as to establish a fair and balanced agreement regarding the risk of software budget overruns, a situation very common to software projects.
The other part of the book addresses the interactive room, an environment and process for agile software requirements, modeling, prototyping, testing, and development, covering variants such as mobile application development, agile project monitoring, digitization strategy development, and technology evaluation. Although the techniques and methods of the interactive room have been extensively covered in other agile books, this does not diminish the relevance and importance of this book in addressing a key issue faced by most software projects (the financial budget), especially because the authors address this topic in an innovative, thoughtful way that makes this book a must-have on the agile contractor manager’s desk.