Michael Saiger 1107583 CE0723a Programming in C++ Module Deliverer: Colin Miller How to Manage a Software Development Project

using Scrum There are two main approaches to game design from a producers point of view in the games industry. Stewart Waterson, a producer at tiger games, talked about how Agile design and management is better than that of Waterfall design and management. Waterfall design encompasses building a heavy 'up-front' design in very high detail. This means that the document is bulky and hard to extract any key information required for a specific group. For example a waterfall design document contains all designs such as art and programming which are developed together. On the other hand Agile design relies on short brief description and areas of development are easily accessible to a team and easy to change. Stewart Waterson also comments on how a Waterfall design is like a 'Bible' for the entire game whereas the games design behind an Agile design is a lot more 'living'. Its able to be changed regular due to the amount of meeting and how every development sector is informed of changes and knows exactly whats going on rather than the game being developed in blocks. The schedule for a Waterfall design is developed early on in a games development whereas Agile management updates the schedule fortnightly for minor adjustments and check that each development team is on track and to check for any changes that need to be made. A popular process of Agile management is Scrum, a management system that is dependent on a producer creating achievable goals for a development team. The basis behind Scrum is that first a development team receives a product backlog, in the games industry this would be a design document. The development team need to review on what they need to do and how they should approach completing the product. The design document is expanded and divided so that the development team can breakdown what needs to be done. Then the first iteration takes place which is decided by the development team, this is a timeframe which could be a week, a fortnight or a month. These iterations allow each area of a development team to work on their key elements and work on a sector for the final product. During the iteration there are a series of daily scrum meetings where developers can discuss any issues or changes. This allows for maximum communication between all development areas. At the end of the iteration a product should be developed that can be presented to stakeholders or publishers so they can review the product and can make any changes.

Michael Saiger 1107583 CE0723a Programming in C++ Module Deliverer: Colin Miller Above is an image that displays the simplicity of Scrum management. The backlog is the beginning product or result from the previous scrum. It is then expanded and analysed for areas of improvement. Then a selected duration of time increment is decided upon and during this time there are daily scrum meeting to ensure the teams are on track. At the end of the increment there should be a shippable product or in terms of the games industry, a working prototype or developed concept. Ken Schwaber describes the skeleton operating as, At the start if iteration, the team reviews what is must do. It then selects what it believes it can turn into an increment of potentially shippable functionality by the end of the iteration. The team is then left alone to make its best effort for the rest of the iteration. At the end of the iteration, the team presents the increment of functionality it built so that stakeholders can inspect the functionality and timely adaptations to the project can be made. In essence this covers all management areas other than the games industry. In the games industry Scrums work towards developing a prototype or the next target milestone such as Alpha, Beta and then testing. This gives Scrum management more complexities as the alpha or Beta may have to be changed after the increments as they are not finished products so more work will need to be done as well as the changes that developers want made. However Scrum is still simpler than say waterfall approach when developing a concept in the games industry. For instance, because areas of a game concept are developed in sections within Scrum they can be easily expanded and changed, whereas creating a waterfall document is like taking apart a building from the bottom up, everything is already there and integrated, making it hard for the scrum team to dissect the areas they want to change. At the end of a sprint a meeting is held. This meeting is usually four hours long and its where the team presents what they have developed during the sprint to the developers or product owner. This is done to allow any changes that need to be addressed and is a rather informal meeting so everyone can outline what has been changed and what can be done to improve the product. In the games industry these meetings are often done every week on a Friday because of the fact the whole development team and stakeholders are already part of the company, apart from publisher, according to Marc Williamson, Producer at Tag Games. Scrum is widely used today because it is a type of management that allows for change, especially in the games industry when new ideas are constantly being thought up. Linda Rising and Norman S. Janoff describe why they as a communications company chose Scrum: In the new telecommunications market where our company operates, change is overwhelming. Software developers have always complained about changing requirements, but in traditional approaches they assumed they would understand the requirements before moving on to the next phase. In the current environment, however, project requirements might not be defined it might even be that no one clearly understands the product under developmentScrum provides empirical controls that allow the development to occur as close to the edge of chaos as the developing organization can tolerate. There are only three roles in Scrum management. There is the product owner or developer, the person who owns the product or concept, there is the development team which would include the designers, artists and programmers in the games industry and finally there is the Scrum-Master, who is responsible for the scrum process. The Scrum-Master is in charge teaching anyone who does not understand the process of Scrum, for implementing Scrum into a company which can be a challenge for a company that has a specific and well maintained management already. This means the Scrum Master has to develop around a companys work habit and culture but still delivers the benefits of Scrum (Schwaber, Ken. 2004).

Michael Saiger 1107583 CE0723a Programming in C++ Module Deliverer: Colin Miller In conclusion, Scrum offers a management or development team a more practical and changing structure to work with for a growing product such as a game concept. When something is going to change over the course of its development, from either developers or product owner, Scrum allows for change. It allows areas of a management team to focus on their area of expertise and produce their relevant section of development. All of this can be done in designated increments so that a working product can be supplied at the end of the increment. Scrum allows for those who do not understand the concept to be taught by the Scrum-master and then apply their new found knowledge, like and apprenticeship. Appendix Waterson, Stewart. 2012 Producer at Tiger Games, Lecture notes. https://portal.abertay.ac.uk/learning/module/IAMG/AG0760A/Files/Abertay_130312.pdf Schwaber, Ken. 2002 Beade, Mike. Agile Software development with scrum http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/scrum1.gif - image of scrum management Schwaber, Ken. 2004. Best Practices, Agile Project Management with Scrum Williamson, Marc. 2012 Producer at Tag games and Scrum-Master for Tag Games. Presentation and lecture notes- https://portal.abertay.ac.uk/learning/module/IAMG/AG0760A/Files/ScrumVisuals.pdf Rising, Linda. Janoff, Norman S. 2010 AG communications sytems. The Scrum software development process for small teams