What is DSDM?

Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is a framework based originally around Rapid Application Development (RAD), supported by its continuous user involvement in an iterative development and incremental approach which is responsive to changing requirements, in order to develop a system that meets the business needs on time and on budget. It is one of a number of Agile methods for developing software and forms part of the Agile Alliance. DSDM was developed in the United Kingdom in the 1990s by a consortium of vendors and experts in the field of Information System (IS) development, the DSDM Consortium, combining their best-practice experiences. The DSDM Consortium is a non-profit and vendor independent organisation which owns and administers the framework. The first version was completed in January 1995 and published in February 1995. The current version in use at this point in time (April 2006) is Version 4.2: Framework for Business Centered Development released in May 2003. DSDM Public Version 4.2 (www.dsdm.org) was made available for individuals to view and use in July 2006. However, anyone reselling DSDM must still be a member of the not-for-profit consortium. As an extension of rapid application development, DSDM focuses on Information Systems projects that are characterized by tight schedules and budgets. DSDM addresses the common reasons for information systems project failure including exceeding budgets, missing deadlines, and lack of user involvement and top management commitment. DSDM recognizes that projects are limited by time and resources, and plans accordingly to meet the business needs. In order to achieve these goals, DSDM encourages the use of RAD with the consequent danger that too many corners are cut. DSDM applies some principles, roles, and techniques. In some circumstances, there are possibilities to integrate practices from other methodologies, such as the Select Perspective, Extreme Programming (XP), and PRINCE2, as complements to DSDM. Another agile method that has some similarity in process and concept to DSDM is Scrum.   Principles of DSDM

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	User involvement is the main key in running an efficient and effective project, where both users and developers share a workplace, so that the decisions can be made accurately. The project team must be empowered to make decisions that are important to the progress of the project, without waiting for higher-level approval. DSDM focuses on frequent delivery of products, with assumption that to deliver something "good enough" earlier is always better than to deliver everything "perfectly" in the end. By delivering product frequently from an early stage of the project, the product can be tested and reviewed where the test record and review document can be taken into account at the next iteration or phase. The main criteria for acceptance of deliverable in DSDM is on delivering a system that addresses the current business needs. It is not so much directed at delivering a perfect system addressing all possible business needs, but focuses its efforts on critical functionality. Development is iterative and incremental, driven by users’ feedback to converge on an effective business solution. All changes during the development are reversible. The high level scope and requirements should be base-lined before the project starts. Testing is carried out throughout the project life-cycle. Communication and cooperation among all project stakeholders is required to be efficient and effective.

Prerequisites for using DSDM

In order for DSDM to be a success, a number of prerequisites need to be realized. First, there needs to be interactivity between the project team, future end users and higher management. This addresses well known failures of IS development projects due to lack of top management motivation and/or user involvement.

The second important prerequisite for DSDM projects is the decomposability of the project. The possibility of decomposition into smaller parts enables the iterative approach, and activities, that are hard to prioritize, often causes delays. And that is exactly the effect that DSDM was developed to avoid. Another group of projects for which DSDM is not well-suited are safety-critical ones. The extensive testing and validation found in these kinds of projects collide with DSDM goals of being on time and on budget. Finally, projects that aim at re-usable components might not be well-suited for development using DSDM, because the demands on perfection are too high and collide with the 80%/20% principle described earlier.

The Phases of DSDM

The DSDM framework consists of three sequential phases, namely the pre-project, project life-cycle and post-project phases. The project phase of DSDM is the most elaborate of the three phases. The project life-cycle phase consists of 5 stages that form an iterative step-by-step approach in developing an IS. The three phases and corresponding stages are explained extensively in the subsequent sections. For each stage/phase, the most important activities are addressed and the deliverables are mentioned.

	Phase 1: The Pre-Project In the pre-project phase candidate projects are identified, project funding is realized and project commitment is ensured. Handling these issues at an early stage avoids problems at later stages of the project. Phase 2: The Project life-cycle   The process overview in the figure above shows the project life-cycle of this phase of DSDM. It depicts the 5 stages a project will have to go through to create an IS. The first two stages, the Feasibility Study and Business Study are sequential phases that complement to each other. After these phases have been concluded, the system is developed iteratively and incrementally in the Functional Model Iteration, Design & Build Iteration and Implementation stages. The iterative and incremental nature of DSDM will be addressed further in a later section. Feasibility Study Business Study Functional Model Iteration Design and Build Iteration Implementation Phase 3: Post-project The post-project phase ensures the system operating effectively and efficiently. This is realized by maintenance, enhancements and fixes according to DSDM principles. The maintenance can be viewed as continuing development based on the iterative and incremental nature of DSDM. Instead of finishing the project in one cycle usually the project can return to the previous phases or stages so that the previous step and the deliverable products can be refined.

Core Techniques of DSDM

	Timeboxing MoSCoW Prototyping Testing Workshop Modelling Configuration Management

	References   Information is taken in whole, or in part, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia - which is a fully independent knowledge resource that has no affiliation with Select Business Solution. As a result, Select Business Solutions takes no responsibility for the accuracy. If you believe the information is wrong, please contact us and we will investigate. ¹   ²   ³

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