There is enough evidence that Agile works … in most cases much better than waterfall.
Even when you are working in an enterprise scale, distributed, multi-vendor and strong regulatory environment – agile works better than any other method.
Here are some survey and research finding
1. Survey Result Indicates that Agile Projects Are More Successful
Here is a review of the survey result by Scott Ambler.
- The gap between “Agile + Iterative” and “Traditional + Ad-hoc” has been increasing
- Iterative approach has consistently performed as good as Agile
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2. Agile Practices Now Have Research Support
Latest research suggests that iterative approach with trial and error is the best way to navigate through our environment which has become exceedingly complex.
- The Unselfish Gene
- Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure
- The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking Of Economics
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But … the problem of reconciling the manifesto with distributed enterprise scale environment remains. To reconcile it we need to first resolve…
What is the essence of Agile?
- Essence of agile – 2 dimension
- Yardstick of evaluation – 2 positive and 1 negative questions to ask
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4. Scaling Agile – Is It Possible Without Violating Agile Manifesto?
Well … to scale, there may be a need to dilute some of the principles but still retaining the essence of Agile.
- Interaction and Collaboration
- Measure of Progress
- Responding to Change
- Forming Self-Organizing Team
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Lot of thoughts has gone in to make Agile scalable. A cross-section of such thoughts are highlighted here.
- Dimensions of scaling and the need to integrate with other enterprise processes
- Different options of splitting the teams
- Harmonizing the tool and process dimension with agile practices
- Making distributed teams effective through communities of practice
- Managing the product backlog at multiple levels
- Managing workflow between multiple teams using Kanban
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6. Agile Adoption – Crossing the Chasm
The other challenge in an enterprise is to move from traditional development method – here are some pointers to the challenges that need to be solved.
- Funding: how is project sanctioned?
- Interaction: do stakeholders trust each other?
- Defect: what is a defect?
- Success: how is it measured?
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7. Agile Development and Enterprise Architecture Practice – Can They Coexist
Agile and EA is probably as different as Mars and Venus – can an enterprise follow both?
- Why should this be a challenge?
- Co-existence would be impossible
- There will be difficulties but it can be done
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8. Agile Maturity Model – 3 Different Approaches
Does it make sense to have an Agile maturity model – like the SEI-CMMi model? There is no agreement among expert.
- Why Agile – start from the business goal?
- How to scale Agile – from one small team to whole enterprise?
- How to be Agile – what processes to focus on?
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Finally … what happens when more than one organization are involved?
How to make Agile Offshoring work?
9. Agile Offshoring – Working With People vs. Working With Company
Should the customer take the complete responsibility to setup the process or should it allow the vendor to lead?
- Working with People – Setting up an Agile Offshore Team
- What is wrong with this approach?
- Working with an Organization – Building a Partnership
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10. Off-Shoring and Moving From Waterfall to Agile
What are the challenges faced by the vendor organization to implement Agile?
- From the perspective of the business head of the of the organization handling the off-shoring
- From the perspective of the project manager
- From the perspective of the architect / designer
- From the perspective of the process owner
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11. Five Questions You Need to Ask Before You Outsource an Agile Project
- Why do you want to do the project in an Agile mode?
- Do you want to outsource just this project or are you looking for a partner?
- What type of commercial model you should look at?
- What payment term should you have?
- Are you sure the vendor understands your definition of “done”?
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12. Five Questions to Ask Before You Take Up an Agile Contract
- Is your understanding of Agile same as your clients understanding of Agile?
- On what basis are you going to get paid?
- How will the iterations be accepted? How will the project close?
- Will your communication infrastructure measure up to client expectation?
- How transparent do you have to be about your team composition and organization?
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Though, Agile manifesto says “Collaboration over Contract Negotiation” there is no escaping a contract when 2 organizations are involved.
Best Practices in Contracting for Agile
13. Contracting For Agile Project Outsourcing
- Is it possible to have Fixed-Price, Fixed-Scope (FPFS) agile contract?
- What are the options available for Variable-Price, Variable-Scope contracts?
- Can you have a completely transparent payment model?
- How do you protect against things going bad?
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Udayan Banerjee on Google+
