2. Describe how the case illustrates the benefits and pitfalls of agile. Which of the mistakes made resulted specifically from the agile method, and which might have been made with a more traditional approach as well?

The goal of the Grand Entry project was to provide a new web portal for employees of Accent, Inc., to replace the existing portal, which employees found cluttered and difficult to use. The project’s mission statement was to “Create an improved user experience by developing a simple and intuitive system that allows users to navigate and access the desired contents quickly and efficiently.”
Among its objectives were “innovative design, simple and intuitive interfaces, features to encourage users to return to the site, and use of an agile process to develop the site.”
The CIO had heard about agile methodology and thought Grand Entry would be a good place to try it out. He assigned the project to Theodora Lamar, a software project manager with much experience, although none in agile. Senior management provided no budget but told Theodora to hold costs to “between $400,000 and $600,000” (to cover salaries of workers assigned to the project) and shoot for completion in 16 months. She was to conduct the project in “agile fashion”
wherein each sprint was to deliver “additional functionality” that would be reviewed and approved by “stakeholders.”
Theodora read some articles on agile and Scrum, appointed herself Scrum master, and selected two analysts for the Grand Entry (GE) team. Their first action was to form a focus group through which portal users could vocalize their dissatisfaction with the current system. The team selected for the focus group two Accent employees, recently hired and not yet assigned to specific work. Although new to the company, they had recent experience with the portal and would know its limitations. Their role was twofold: (1) talk to as many fellow employees as possible to learn the problems of the current portal and get ideas for improvement and (2) use the deliverables from each sprint and make suggestions. Initially, they would devote all of their time to the project; later, they would split their time between the project and other work assignments.