EDI SCRUM 2.0: How to Master the Chicken-Egg-Problem of Requirements Management

Agile development methods allow software developers to efficiently create software, accounting for changing requirements while discovering different solution approaches through the collaborative effort of cross-functional teams in close collaboration with the customers. Many software companies implement agile development by using SCRUM. At EDI GmbH – Engineering Data Intelligence, we established our own way of SCRUM, constantly reflecting on ourselves and implementing best practices. Today, our development philosophy and process enable us to address the specific challenges of our technically sophisticated but at the same time very easy to use and understandable, innovative AI-based applications. That is how the term EDI SCRUM 2.0 is coined and it particularly combines the technical expertise of our data scientists and backend developers on the one hand and the creativity and human-centered thinking of our frontend developers and UI designers on the other hand: Already in the “Design Thinking” phase, customer needs and requirements for software and hardware are formalised and described as a so-called Smart Product Service System (sPSS). Subsequently, the formalised requirements are passed on to the subsequent development teams where they are broken down into manageable features and meaningfully bundled into versions of the digital product.

Our internationally distributed teams are well experienced in understanding the customers’ domain and purposefully combining the modules of our EDI hive IoT Framework and adapting them for specific customer needs. In the “Design Thinking” phase we figure out the customer needs through workshops and evaluate the potential of the customer’s existing knowledge, data and possible business models. Therefore, EDI SCRUM 2.0 guides our teams’ collaborative actions and the standard modules of our EDI hive IoT Framework make it easy for us to tackle big challenges efficiently by focusing on the essential use cases of our customers. Furthermore, we thoroughly evaluate customer experience to validate the product and to incorporate customer feedback as early as possible.

A high level of automation throughout the whole Application Lifecycle is another aspect that contributes to boosting our work output: automated testing, automated deployment, and automated monitoring. At EDI GmbH, we take Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) seriously to ensure the best experience for the customer from the start of development and especially during operative use of our products to enable a continuous robust update of new features. Automated Selenium tests for the frontend as well as automated unit testing for the backend ensure that applications are stable and updates do not interfere with the ongoing operative work of our customers. Automated warnings are sent to our developers in case they must take a closer look into an application. Additionally, an automated monitoring system based on Icinga2 identifies potential problems even before they occur and sends us messages via Telegram. This enables us to provide proactive maintenance to keep constant high quality. In doing so, a virtuous cycle of hatching new customised digital products for our customers is initiated, ensuring constant growth of the knowledge basis and increasing business opportunities.

In a nutshell, we design, develop, test, deploy, and monitor AI-based applications for our customers using our EDI hive IoT Framework empowered by Agile Development methods. EDI SCRUM 2.0 is the unique combination of our standard modules with our homemade agile development process that makes us able to deliver solutions to customers such as Daimler AG or SMEs e.g. for tooling machine suppliers like OTEC Präzisionsfinish GmbH.

In the video attached, our Co-CEO Dr.-Ing. Thomas Freudenmann discusses the topic of agile development of AI-based applications with experts from KIT and other experts from the industry. Please check the link below for the video from the same event, but focusing on AI applications.
► https://www.youtube.com/…