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Challenges for Agile way of working in research

Overview

Teaching: 40 min
Exercises: 0 min
Questions
  • What are challenges for an Agile way of working in research and how do I solve them?

Objectives
  • List challenges for an Agile way of working in research

  • Know the solutions to challenges for an Agile way of working in research

In this episode we will discuss and learn about challenges that arise when applying Agile principles to research projects. While some of the Agile values and principles go hand in hand with the traditional way of doing academic research, others will require an investment of the team to change their way of working.


Challenges

Discussion

What are the challenges for an Agile way of working that are specific to research? These might be challenges that are more generic to doing teamwork in research, instead of just the Agile way of working.

Uncertainty Challenge

Scientific research is all about discovering the unknown. This makes the work predictably unpredictable to an enourmous extent. The development time of a certain part of the research can range from “already solved by someone else” to “impossible to solve”. Also the requirements can suddenly change by 90 degrees based on the outcomes of a different part of the research project or the availability of data.

Cultural challenge

Many scientists are traditionally used to working individually in an isolated silo. Tasks in academia are often attributed to individuals and not to teams. A PhD-project is by default set up as a one-person project. Given this individualistic culture it is often intimidating to start with Agile practices in a scientific context.

Waterfall project setup challenge

Scientific projects are often set up in long-term project timelines following a Waterfall method. It is not common to ensure early (weekly/monthly) continuous delivery of the research outcomes to the scientific community.

Large-scale projects challenge

Scientific projects can be on a very large scale. It is hard to work together in very large teams. Also, having a continuously changing design in iterative sprints does not always lead to the best large-scale functionality and/or desired research outcomes.

Team dedication challenge

Agile is often explained in the context of a team fully dedicated to a single project. In academia, team members may often be involved in numerous projects in and outside of the team.

Product Owner challenge

For a team running multiple research projects, who acts as product owner when applying the scrum framework?

Open Source software development challenge

The nature of open source projects is that they draw (and benefit from) collaborators outside of your team, workplace and even country. Starting and contributing to open source software projects therefore leads to many dependencies on collaborators outside of the team. Not completely “owning” your product is problematic in many Agile methodologies. Approaches like Scrum may not work well or at all in such a situation.

Specific expertise challenge

For many scientific problems a very specific expertise is needed. This expertise is often even specific for a single project. This makes it hard to work together as other team members need to have or acquire this specific expertise.

What is our “product” challenge

The Agile principles and related methodologies often talk about satisfying the “customer” with bringing “value” to a “product”. But what is “value” in research? And who is the customer? It is often hard or awkward to define scientific outcomes as products with a certain functionality.


Solutions

Discussion

Can you think of solutions to these challenges?

Uncertainty Challenge

Solutions:


Cultural challenge

Solutions:


Waterfall project setup challenge

Solutions:


Large-scale projects challenge

Solutions


Team dedication challenge

Solutions:


Product Owner challenge

Solutions:


Open Source software development challenge

Solutions:


Specific expertise challenge

Solutions:


What is our “product” challenge

Solutions:


Resources

Of course, methodological issues are not the only challenge in team work. Soft skills can be just as important, if not more. We discuss this next, in episode 7.

Key Points

  • Agile methodologies should be slightly adapted so that they work well in a research setting

  • Remember to fit the methodology to your way of working