Agile And Artificial Intelligence

Agile is turning into a standard delivery method and is being adopted by organizations across the planet. Teams look at Agile as a process change than a cultural change and that’s the reason why the Agile maturity of teams is low.

Companies these days are using a virtual Scrum Master agent. It monitors numerous aspects of the Agile development process. It includes requirements, releases, metrics, and resources. It does alert the team of any potential issues and provides possible solutions.

It is handy in helping Agile teams with scrum ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and sprint retrospective. It does by providing predictive and descriptive insights.

Why Virtual Scrum Master?

While AI is capable to automate processes within software development, it becomes pertinent to zero in on a particular case to automate. During a study, it was found that roughly 30 to 40 percent of the tasks within the Agile ceremonies could be potentially automated and thus increasing the overall efficiency. Agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, product backlog refinement, daily stand-up, sprint retrospective, release planning, the definition of ready, and definition of done activities were all considered during the research.

The goal of the virtual Scrum Master is to be a pivot around the whole Agile team and improve the speed of delivery, collaboration, and alertness within the Agile ecosystem.

It monitors the overall project status at the sprint, team, and Agile Release Train levels. It uses historical information to predict the future and takes the corrective course when needed via predictive and descriptive analytics. It measures and auto compute metrics and reporting. It supports requirements management activities. And it’s available 24 by 7. It drives standardization of Agile practices while scaling in a distributed manner and provides alerts and recommendations on Agile Leading practices.

Virtual Scrum Master- Functional Diagram

Source-Accenture Research

Challenges within: Initially, physical Scrum Masters were unwelcoming to the idea of a virtual Scrum Master. There were issues during the deployment. They felt that their roles were being diluted. It forced them out of their comfort zones. It required additional learning to use it effectively. Teams often felt the virtual Scrum Master impeded the collaboration. It was taking the team towards command and control behavior.

In the smooth implementation of the virtual Scrum master, there are a variety of AI technology stacks available. Microsoft, Google, Splunk use these stacks to build various aspects. The onus is on putting the eight architecture and bring in the right skilled people in these technologies.

Things as they stand:

Source-Accenture Research

Conclusion

Today’s age is about human evolution about its empowerment. It is about designing compatible technologies. The collaboration of AI and machines is a promising prospect. Collaboration between and within the teams won’t be replaced but will be augmented to the next level. Machines and AI can steer us to do Agile better. Disrupted Agile with AI is no longer a topic of discussion. It’s an accepted fact that’s being accelerated by increased automation in the software development process, via cognitive computing and artificial intelligence.

Advance Agility is an AI-enabled new-age company. We are experts in syncing virtual Scrum Masters with the physical infrastructure of the company. Do drop in to explore further.