Xebia walks the agile way

Agile Methodology is a new way of developing software. Xebia started agile methodology in 2003-04 when it was very new. Over a period of 6-7 years, Xebia claims that it has gained expertise in the methodology. Anurag Shrivastava, managing director, Xebia in an interaction with Prasoon Srivastava of CIOL talked about the company's road map after the adoption of Agile methodology. Excerpts:

How do you work in Agile Methodology?

Adopting Agile Methodology means that you can develop and deliver software in short span of time, which means that every three weeks or so you are going to deliver some features of the software, which is quite different from old methodologies in which you get specifications from the customer and you work for months, and after 6-8 months, you deliver your first piece of software.

Here the idea is that you work in small affiliations then you deliver little and you go ahead, then again you deliver little and go ahead.

Do you work using existing solutions and then you club it with your solution?

While using Agile Methodology, you will not expect the customer to do the complete analysis of the problem. We start with a very high level statement of the problem and as we move along developing the software, we learn more and more about it. And then with that feedback I can improve the design of the software and with that the quality of it.

Now, this is quite different from the other approaches wherein first, you write down the complete detail of what you really want and then start building it up.

Just to give you an example, suppose you have to develop Internet-Banking software. For that you can make a very thick document of about 300 pages in which you describe completely in detail that how people are going to use the Internet banking software, with every drop down box and every check box.

Then you go to a company and say - Can you build this for me?

In Agile Methodology, we say that if want to develop an Internet banking software then just write on a three page document of what you really want. Once we start building something, we keep refining product based on clients demand.

Which are the areas where agile methodology is working or has been adopted really fast?

I think that the agile methodology is being used a lot in the e-business projects where they have to develop some e-business applications or web 2.0 applications or mobile based applications because these are the markets wherein there is a lot of pressure in delivering the functionality fast and there are several companies who are just trying to win themselves on the basis of the ideas.

A helpline is a nice thing but you have to implement that idea very quickly so that you can test whether this idea is going to result in a successful product or not.

So the companies who are e-businesses like the travel companies selling the holidays on the Internet, or mobile application development company or a web 2.0 company developing a social networking portal are very much interested in using agile methodology.

What is the time saving that people can gain using agile methodology? Can you give me a comparative analysis with other traditional methodologies?

Earlier what used to happen was that if I have a concept and I have to build a system then I would hire an analyst who would spend two months in analyzing what I really want. Then I will go to a company and then they will start building solutions for me which would again take around a month to make a technical design. In nutshell, the process consumes not less than 6 months. In Agile Methodology, you can see result within a month.

What about its adoption in enterprise segment?

In the enterprise segment, I see adoption of these concepts more abroad than in India. In India I see the capital interest of multinationals are having a serious look at the agile methodology because they work for their customers in Europe. So when their overseas offices start using agile methodology, people in India would also adopt it.

I see a very little interest among Indian companies, like banks or financial institutions or insurance companies, in this area at this moment. They are somewhat lagging behind in this whole agile movement.

What is the reason that you identify for this lag?

It takes a lot of time for these institutions to realize and understand what is happening in the other part of the world before they adopt the best practices. Still I think that they outsource the project using traditional methodologies and so on.

Is there any cost benefit for adopting the agile methodology? Can you give any comparative figures?

The reason why the West adopted agile methodology is that they found that the rate of failure in software development projects was very high. Suppose you start a project worth three million dollars and after having spent this amount you get to know that this project was wrong. Here, you have lost entire three million dollars.

In the case of agile methodology, you start a project and it is quite possible to get the same result when you have just spent 200 thousand dollars. It is better for them to spend 200 thousand dollars and then know whether there project is going to be success or not.

Out of the 30 clients how many clients do out have in India?

At this moment we just have three Indian companies that too the MNCs from abroad having capitalist interest in India.

Which is your target market at the moment?

First is the domestic market where we are trying to raise awareness about better software development methodologies. Simultaneously, we have focused upon the Western Europian Market for software development and also on the US. The maximum business is coming from the western part of the Europe which includes- France, Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden.

What are the resources that you have to work on this Agile Methodology?

At this moment our team in India is around 72 people and we are likely to grow to around 100 people by the end of the year.