Toward Enterprise Agile Scalability: A New Way to Look at Accounting for Agile Software Development Costs
Abstract: Traditional corporate accounting standards and practices have evolved around a waterfall based IT investment model where IT projects are delivered in discrete, time boxed phases. As organizations adopt an iterative agile development and delivery model, they may encounter inherent constraints and points of friction with legacy accounting practices and policies which could adversely impact Agile adoption and scalability. Success requires a paradigm shift which starts with an understanding of the FASB accounting standards and mapping existing accounting standards to the Agile development lifecycle. Benefits for participants: Participants will become familiar with the FASB accounting standard (SOP 98-1) which outlines the accounting rules for appropriately expensing or capitalizing costs associated with software development; and learn how to apply these rules to agile design, development, deployment and iteration management.
Content outline: This tutorial will cover the following topics: 1. Understanding key components of FASB’s accounting standard SOP 98-1: Accounting for the Costs of Computer Software Developed or Obtained for Internal Use (ACC Section 10,720) through an Agile Lens 2. Learning what work can be capitalized on an Agile project 3. Learning how to map and apply this knowledge to your organization
Timeline:
(10 minutes) Foundational problem: History
(20 minutes) Exercise 1: Guidance on Understanding Interpreting Accounting Law through an Agile Lens - Hands-on exercise developing a rule based scorecard
(20 minutes) Exercise 2: Applying the accounting rules to the Agile Software Development Lifecycle
(20 minutes) Exercise 3: Mapping to your organization - crafting an action plan to partner with (and educate) appropriate finance and management audit
(20 minutes) Discussion of key learning points; Q & A