How even agile development couldn't keep this mega-project on track

The article says the UK’s Universal Credit programme was presented as the world’s biggest agile software project, but it ended up with cost overruns, delays, and a write-off of at least £34m. It argues that the problems came from an approach that was not iterative enough, contracts that constrained change, and the difficulty of using agile at the scale of a large government programme.

Reading notes

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• Universal Credit was meant to show that agile software methods could work on a very large scale.
• Two years after the project began, it was over time and over budget.
• The NAO said the government had to write off at least £34m and delay the national launch.
• The DWP could not guarantee that the rest of the £303m already spent would deliver good value.
• Agile is described as a flexible alternative to waterfall development, with smaller modules delivered at regular intervals and shaped by user feedback.
• In this case, there was a two-year gap between the design and build phase and the system going live.
• Jose Casal-Gimenez says the project did not have enough iterative feedback or real-world testing.
• The NAO said the Cabinet Office did not think the department had properly adopted an agile approach before the reset.
• Rigid supplier requirements and existing contracts made it hard to fit agile into the programme.
• The procurement decisions seem to have been made before agile was considered as the delivery method.
• John Turner says agile contracts need room for software to evolve, along with clear cost, time, quality, and outcome definitions.
• The article says agile cannot be rushed, especially in large organizations with little experience of it.
• The DWP appears to have expected agile to reduce development time, even though the transition itself can take longer.
• The NAO said the programme grew to more than 1,000 people, even though agile is often used in smaller collaborative teams.
• The department also had to integrate Universal Credit with existing systems that used waterfall change management.
• In January 2012, the DWP shifted to Agile 2.0 and began a small-scale deployment.
• Casal-Gimenez says the Manchester pilot with 1,000 claimants is closer to a genuine agile approach because it allows learning and gradual expansion.