The MXUG group might be a better place to post as this group has dwindled
significantly over the last few months.
http://groups.google.com.au/group/mxug

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:59 PM, acidtest@... <
john_paterson@...> wrote:

>
>
> Hi All,
>
> I'm hoping that someone out there can assist me with some research I'm
> doing for a Master's thesis in Project Management at RMIT. I'm following a
> line of enquiry which suggests there are organisations that, while having
> adopted agile development methods, do in fact use some aspects of
> plan-driven methods in managing their software development projects. This
> conjecture was first made by Barry Boehm from UCLA in 2002, and since
> explored in more detail in "Balancing Agility and Discipline" which he
> co-wrote with Richard Turner in 2004.
>
> My thesis' current, somewhat clunky, working title is "Agile and
> Plan-driven Software Development Methodologies Co-existence: a Case Study".
> What I'm hoping to find are examples of where agile and some aspects of
> plan-driven methods do co-exist. To that end I need to interview people
> across different levels - from developer to management - and functions
> within an organisation, gathering their views and experience on this matter.
>
> Ideally, the organisation will belong to a somewhat larger enterprise, with
> the development group large enough to be running a number of projects
> simultaneously. My supervisor suggests that I need to conduct at least a
> dozen interviews in order to obtain a good result. It would be great to
> conduct all these in one organisation, but realistically I think I'll be
> taking smaller samples from a number of organisations.
>
> While I'd be ecstatic to discover an organisation that does indeed use a
> combination both agile and plan-driven methods, I'm happy to conduct
> interviews with an organisation that just uses agile. For my purposes a null
> result is still a valid result.
>
> In order to reduce your inconvenience I'd be coming to your work place in
> order to conduct the interviews. These could then be held on or off site.
> The information gathered will be confidential; anonymity is guaranteed.
>
> What's in it for you and your organisation? You'd be contributing to the
> agile – plan driven debate, and assisting with academic research. I'd be
> more than happy to distribute my findings once they're published. I don't
> have a budget for this, but if coffee is needed as a bribe then so be it.
>
> If your organisation, or one you know of, would be interested in
> contributing to this academic research then I'd love to hear from you.
> Similarly if you have any questions, then feel free to contact me. My
> contact details are 0422 643 236 or at
john_paterson@...<john_paterson%40acidtest.com.au>
>
> Regards,
>
> John Paterson
>
>
>


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