Agile development hinges on what is known as a Product Backlog. All requirements are captured in this Product Backlog, during consultation with the client.
The next stage of the process involves the assessment of effort required to deliver each element of the backlog, while the client sets a priority on each element.
From this confirmed list, Trinsic works out a development plan based on Sprints where an agreed set of days (5 or 10 linear days) are chosen for the delivery of the items with the highest priority. Multiple resources can be allocated items from the backlog with each resource aware of the delivery deadline for the Sprint.
Each morning a Scrum meeting is held on the project, with all resources present. Each elaborates on where they are at with their task for the Sprint deliverables. Senior developers and the Project Manager can act quickly where required to ensure there is no slippage on the Sprint deadlines.
Sprints are handed over to the client in the form of a deployment to a salesforce.com 'Staging' environment where UAT (User Acceptance Testing) can be conducted. Any bugs/feedback is captured at this stage and items are added to the next Sprint deliverable as priority items for delivery.
Depending on the size of the project, there may be one Sprint or many Sprints but the process is the same for each ie:- Consultation around the prioritised backlog issues to be included in the Sprint, development of the agreed functionality, deployment for UAT, feedback/bug collection for inclusion in the next Sprint.
This process works extremely well and ensures a higher level of quality in the development cycle. It also allows the client see functionality early in the process and communicate changes more easily and where requested change priorities throughout the course of the project.