A recent survey on Agile development methodology reported adoption is on the climb. This is great news, but typically we find that executive management teams have no idea what Agile is, or what it’s supposed to accomplish. From my time at Entrance and in previous positions, this is definitely consistent with my experience. I’d like to explain why Agile methodologies do matter to executives, even if right now they just see it as a low-level software development process.
Building Agile Development Methodology in the Organization
Management, both IT and Line of Business Management, want to build organizations that are more agile (as defined by being able to pivot quickly and respond to changes driven by customers, regulations and the market). We also know a lot of business is driven by process backed by software that manages the information used during the process.
For businesses to be agile, the processes by which they do work must be agile, therefore the software supporting the process must also be agile. Businesses seeing a great deal of change in their processes benefit from having custom software developed to accommodate those processes, and even more so if the software is developed using Agile methodologies.
Team-Based Culture
2% of survey respondents said executives were knowledgeable about Agile. And the reasons they gave for the failure of Agile programs, “was either because they failed to integrate the right people, or did not effectively teach a team-based culture.” The writer of the ZDnet article went on to say, “For Agile to truly succeed in an organization, everyone has to be dedicated to the initiative — especially the executive team.”
Executives should care about Agile methodologies and understand how they work, not only for better software, but also to helps them meet important business goals.
Here are a few Agile resources: