Multi-project staffing: An agile based framework

Melanie Johnson, Pace University

Abstract

In the software development environment, the project manager operates in a fast paced, competitive world where the business partners demand quick responses to their requests, and where the requirements are constantly changing. There is concurrent multiple development of projects to handle the demand from the business. In such an environment the Agile Multi-Project Staffing Framework offers guidelines for project staffing that increases the likelihood of efficient and effective development by focusing on a project's most valuable resource, its people. The Agile Multi-Project Staffing Framework describes the processes a project manager would follow to allocate developers across multiple concurrent projects. This paper highlights the considerations for efficiently and effectively assigning developers to projects in an Agile multi-project environment. It includes a conceptual model that shows how developers are assigned to project tasks in such a way that at any time, there is efficient use of human resources. There are efficiencies when developers are organized in a shared pool, and are assigned to intermixed tasks across all concurrent projects. Even though a developer spends the initial period adjusting to the new project, multi-project team staffing should make human resource management and software engineering development more cost effective. Agile Development practices support fast learning and an improved quality product, and assigning a developer to more than one project, increases team productivity and facilitates the spread of knowledge across the team.

Subject Area

Operations research|Computer science

Recommended Citation

Johnson, Melanie, "Multi-project staffing: An agile based framework" (2008). ETD Collection for Pace University. AAI3337583.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/dissertations/AAI3337583

COinS