Methods of Crystal Family

Crystal Clear:

Ø  Small team size of 1-6 people

Ø  Supports fixed price, no negotiation contract

Ø  People-oriented doesn’t focus on process and artifacts much

Ø  Requires documentation

Ø  The focus of project safety

Crystal Yellow

v  Small team size of 7-20

v  Clear ownership of code areas. Code area ownership is defined so that if any changes required, then only the person who owns that code will be taking care of it.

v  Feedback gets taken from the “Real Users.” Additionally, it eliminates further confusion which may occur due to indirect communication.

v  Prefer accessible and direct communication. It reduces the need for too much documentation. Therefore, it becomes easy for the developer to understand his work.

v  Mission statements are the goals which are defined and verified with the customer.

v  Automated testing is used to resolve the bugs faster.

v  Monthly improvement plans get set. Which includes making a to-do list and achieving it within the time.

Crystal Orange

v  Team size of 21 to 40

v  The project lasts from 1-2 years

v  Split up teams as per their functional skills

v  Just like the agile method, follow incremental development

v  A release is required every 3-4 months

v  Every release is called “Increment.”

v  Designed for medium size project

Crystal Orange web

      Team size of 21 to 40

      Used in the Projects that have a continually evolving code base that is being used by the public

      It focuses on raising the minimal defect

Even though the Crystal Orange web & Crystal Orange are similar; Crystal Orange web does not deal with a single project but with a series of initiatives that require programming. The result of these initiatives is merged with the code base and gets used by the developers. However, the method remains the same. It is the reason why it is not shown in the diagram separately.

Crystal Red

The traditional software development method gets followed for the team size of 40-80. In addition to that, the teams are formed and divided as the work required.

Crystal Maroon

It is for the team size 80-200. It is for large-sized projects. Moreover, the methods defined are different & as per the need of the software.

Above are the primary members of the Crystal family. However, for large size projects, there are two more methods.

Crystal Diamond and Crystal Sapphire:

Both are the methods used for very critical and large scale projects. Their team and strategies get decided as per the criticality of the project. These projects are incredibly significant and involve the potential risk of human life.

As shown in the image above, Comfort (C), Discretionary Money (D), Essential Money (E), and Life of the project (L) are the vertical factors. The horizontal factor is Team Size.

Hence, according to Alistair, all these factors have to be considered to decide which method to follow.

For example, for a project of size 40, before committing the date of release, the developers will consider the following things:

·         How many hours each resource is comfortable to work (C)

·         The amount of money available(D) to use for that project

·         How much money is required to complete the project(E)

If any of these requirements don’t meet, then the team size & Life of the Project (L) can be increased/decreased. And finally, the most feasible methodology gets chosen.

Alternatively, seeing the team size, developers can estimate the project completion (L) based on the Money provided (E), Money available (D) & Comfort of the resources(C).