We are still far from fully realizing the vision of the Agile Manifesto, which describes and encourages the practice of working closely and informally with enterprise end users to build software iteratively. However, this open and collaborative approach has only one drawback: it does not easily scale to large organizations with multiple sites, systems and teams spread around the world.
Small businesses represented in a recent Digital.ai survey of 758 software professionals report significant business benefits from implementing Agile. But their larger counterparts continue to face obstacles.
Satisfied users of the Agile method highlight advantages such as:
- Improved collaboration (60%)
- 57% saw better alignment with business needs
- 25% noted better quality of software delivered
Many fans, few satisfied
Overall, while more than seven in ten (71%) IT professionals use Agile for software development, only 11% are fully satisfied with the results, while 33% are “somewhat satisfied.” This means that at least 56% of them are not satisfied with the results, or are not aware of them.
Nearly half of respondents (46%) blame “too many mixed systems” in their organization for forcing them to adopt hybrid approaches to software development. Other challenges include:
- Team compartmentalization and resulting delays (37%)
- The clash of cultures (34%)
- Inconsistent use within teams (30%) of the method
- Failure to measure business value (28%)
The arrival of AI in development teams changes everything
AI is starting to make its way into Agile activities. Among Agile users, nearly 30% are exploring the use of large language models (LLMs) and code wizards to facilitate development processes.
The offspring of Agile, DevOps, is also on the agenda. Both aim to increase end-to-end visibility and the ability to measure cycle times, wait times and bottlenecks. Other areas of progress include:
- Continuous testing done earlier in the lifecycle (29%)
- LLMs (10%)
- Code assistance (10%)
The smaller the better
Many problems with Agile arise from the size of the company:
- Mixed approaches to software development
- Organizational resistance to change
- Lack of understanding on the part of management
- Internal partitions
So many characteristics of large multidisciplinary organizations. It is therefore in small companies that we find the greatest number of successful implementations of the Agile method. The majority of small business professionals, 52%, believe Agile is a “powerful productivity and organizational framework that helps increase collaboration, improve software quality, and better align with the activity of the company. Only 43% of professionals from large companies hold this opinion.
The key to success: an excellent product manager
Nearly three-quarters of small business professionals (74%) – compared to 62% at large businesses – say the majority of their applications were delivered on time and “with quality.” Additionally, 71% of small businesses – compared to 53% of large businesses – have “complete visibility of what is being developed and delivered throughout the software development lifecycle.”
Finally, 61% of small companies surveyed have product managers who can oversee the entire pipeline and measure value to the business, compared to just 43% of large companies.
This is the 17th year that this study has been carried out. The original Agile Manifesto, written in 2001, can be forgiven for being dated. Head-first coding from scratch is disappearing. Over the past two decades, we have seen the advent of the cloud, digital transformation, edge computing, remote working, artificial intelligence, and business leaders have relied even more on their development teams. The lines between technology and business have blurred, if not completely disappeared. Technology professionals have become stakeholders in the business, and businesspeople are becoming increasingly tech-savvy.
An increasingly multi-hatted Agile team leader
According to the survey authors, Agile team leaders are asked a lot: “to demonstrate business value and enable digital transformation, integrate AI, and manage the remote workforce. From AI to From developer burnout to hybrid work environments and relentless demand, change is happening across organizations and industries. Right now, it feels like Agile has had to difficult to adapt.”
Yet the Agile philosophy remains the best solution for moving businesses forward in an uncertain, technology-dominated future. Scrum remains the most popular methodology at the team level, employed by 63% of sites. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) remains the top choice at the enterprise level (26%), but 22% said they do not follow a method imposed by the CIO.
The benefits of Agile – improved collaboration and better alignment with business activities – are still out of reach. One of the challenges cited by 37% of respondents is that business teams simply don’t understand what Agile is or what it can do. Furthermore, 27% of those questioned believe that the training is not sufficient. “There is an ongoing disconnect between agile practitioners and the business, manifested in resistance to organizational change, a lack of understanding from leadership, and inadequate training and support from management. company”, report the authors of the survey.
Source: “ZDNet.com”