Agile In The Real World: Adapting To Change And Driving Transformation

Agile In The Real World:
Gone Mainstream, Creating Bigger
Waves, Making Course Corrections
Tom Grant, Ph.D.
Senior Analyst, Forrester Research

© 2013 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 2
Thanks to
Israel Gat
for that joke

© 2013 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Agile has been a revolutionary force
that definitely improves software
development and delivery…
3
…But we may be
leaving a lot of people
behind.

How successful
is Agile?
4
?

Agile has streamlined development…
5
*

TOP 5 reported benefits: Improved quality (56%)
More opportunities for mid-
course corrections (56%)
Overall improved customer
and business satisfaction
(38%)
Better business-IT
alignment (37%)
Improved time to market
(32%)
A lot more
than velocity

40%
17%
13%
12%
19%
Less than 25%
Between 25% and 49%
Between 50% and 74%
Between 75% and 99%
100%
“How many development teams in your organization
have implemented Agile practices?”
(Select one)
Base: 205 IT professionals from organizations that are implementing or have implemented Agile
(percentages do not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: November 2011 Global Agile Software Application Development Online Survey
Agile adoption isn’t superficial
We’ll see this
pattern again.

Powerful connection to other disruptive forces
8

Agile has adopted to real-world circumstances
9
WATER SCRUM FALL
Resourcing
Budgeting
Justification
Definition
Compliance
Governance
User resistance
to change
Re-work
SPRINT!
SPRINT!
SPRINT!
SPRINT!
Planning
Requirements
Additional testing
Release
StreamlineStreamline

Agile is blurring boundaries between activities

Which is all good news because…
12

*Base: 3,616 business decision-makers world-wide.
Source: Forrsights Business Decision-Makers Survey Q4 2012
Business’ top two
priorities for IT:
1. Improve the use of
data and analytics to
improve business
decisions and
outcomes
2. Improve IT project
delivery performance*
Only 30% of business users
think that IT is accelerating
their success*

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Mobile
Cloud (including SaaS, PaaS, and
other components)
Open source software (used as part
of software developed and/or…
Pressure to deliver more
Pressure to deliver faster
Outsourced work
Geographically distributed teams
Improved customer experience or
user experience
Agile
New tools (EX: Git)
It has made my
work harder.
It has made my
work easier.
It has had no
effect on my
work.
How have the following aspects of software
development and delivery affected your work?
Base: 128 software development professionals worldwide.
Source: Forrester ALM survey, Q1 2013

Uncontrollable demand is destructive
15
Commitments
Technical debt
Resourcing
Heroism
Learning
Planning

Complex, prescriptive SDLCs
are derailing under stress

We’re not in a “post-Agile” world yet

How do we
address some of
the immediate
challenges?
18
?

TESTING
Realistic
Automated
Thorough
DEPLOYMENT
Consistent
Manageable
Recoverable
DELIVERY
Complete
Configured
Immediate
RISK
Understood
Shared
Addressed

Why not
other
activities?

SPRINTSPRINTSPRINTSPRINT
26
Prioritization UX
Quality
Quality
UX
Architecture
Architecture
Prioritization
Design
Design
TECHNICALBUSINESS
Value
Value

Developers have better
relationships with Operations
than they do with business
analysts and business unit
managers.

The #1 and #3 reasons
why software doesn’t
ship on time:
“New and changing
requirements”
“Unclear
requirements.”
“Operational
bottlenecks” are #6.
Base: 128 software development professionals.

5%
15%
25%
8%
20%
26%
Never
Infrequently
After significant landmarks, such
as a major release or the end of a
project
At a regular interval of between 6
to 12 months
At regular intervals less than 6
months apart
Continuously, using data gathered
about system usage or other
mechanisms
Here’s that
curve again
“How often do you measure user/customer satisfaction with
the software as delivered?”
(Select one)

What does the
future look like?
30
?

Agile adoption means crossing a major chasm
31

The organization must be ready for COMMITMENT
Experimentation
Noble failure
Measurement
Adjustment
Transparency
Self-reliance
Collaboration

Sample commitment: CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
33
Check into a single branch
Check in multiple times per day
Test in a production environment
Build the entire package,
not just the binaries
Unit test rigorously
Build after each commit
Only test on a clean server
Do multiple integrations per day
Be transparent to the team

If you’re committed to transformation…

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
We are not planning significant
changes to our methodologies or
tools within the next 5 years.
We would like to make some
significant changes to our
methodologies or tools, but we
have no current plans.
We are planning on making
methodologies or tools within the
next year.
We are in the process of making
methodologies or tools.
Which of the following statements best describes your
software development and delivery organization?
Not everyone
has that
commitment

Why isn’t everyone committed?
36
Lack of leadership
Horizontally fragmentation
Problems of scale
Technical debt
Compliance
Poor organizational health
Under-investment
Out-moded organization
Myth of central control
Risk-averse culture
…And excessive demand

We are headed towards
a deep division
between two types of
software development
organizations

“The curve” is really a chasm
38
Not committed
to transformation
Committed
to transformation

Where would you rather live?
39

How do we
avoid dystopia?

DEEPEN AGILE ADOPTION

Accelerate the
trip down the
cone of
uncertainty

Hone strategies for
adoption beyond the
single team

Make flow the
connection between
Agile and ALM

Methods
High value
software
Tools
The business
Delivered
more
frequently
Delivered
more
reliably
Platforms
Organization
Teams
Trust

EMBRACE DISRUPTION

Disruptors will compel change anyway
45% of software professionals have no plans
for changing methodologies or tools
41% are new at mobile applications, and
31% are planning on starting soon

MOBILE
DEVELOPERS PMO
› New
requirements
media
› New platforms
› New testing
capabilities
› New
deployment
options
› New
expectations
› Some of the
old ways made
sense!
› OK, not all of
them…
› So which can
we change or
drop?

CHANGE ROLES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES

Change roles and responsibilities
Beyond the
product owner
Beyond the
Scrum Master

51
BAs
Developers
Testers
Product
owners
Scrum
masters
UX
designersPortfolio
managers
Project
managers
Technical
architects
BI
professionals
Operations
staff
Executive
management
Helpdesk
staff

Testers must be masters of Test Fu
52
TEST
TECHNICIANS
Test automation
Test management
Exploratory testing
Quality assessment
Test re-use
Realistic cases

BAs must be envoys
53
ORDER
TAKERS
Accelerate design
Define roadmaps
Negotiate
Communicate
necessity
Assess value
Represent interests

Actionable
Contextual
Descriptive
What is the
customer
asking for?
How should we
meet the
customer’s
request?
What is the customer really asking for?

Executives must be sponsors of innovation
55
MONDAY
MORNING
QBs
Goal-setting
Room to experiment
Assessment
Top cover
Alignment
Investment

56
After adopting Agile, who has
influence over product decisions?
Executives were the only group
whose influence decreased.
56

Customers must be partners in innovation
57
ORDER
GIVERS
Clarity
Priority
Context
Availability
Roadmap

The customer must
learn something about
how development
organizations work.
58

Thank you
Tom Grant
+1 650.581.3846
tgrant@forrester.com

Agile In The Real World: Adapting To Change And Driving Transformation

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