We are currently living in highly dynamic environment where priorities may not only be dependent just within the organization. Simply put, in the highly dynamic IT world, product or solution priorities are dependent on various external factors such as competing solutions, new market segments, new technology implementations and so on. To be effective in this environment, we not only need to quickly inspect and adapt but also be flexible to respond to change.

1. Don’t Get Prey to
ScrummerFall
Paper Review: “Finding Agility in the age of
applications”
By Shuk, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSPO
_____________________________________________________________________________________
We are currently living in highly dynamic environment where priorities may not only be dependent just
within the organization. Simply put, in the highly dynamic IT world, product or solution priorities are
dependent on various external factors such as competing solutions, new market segments, new
technology implementations and so on. To be effective in this environment, we not only need to quickly
inspect and adapt but also be flexible to respond to change.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most
responsive to change" — Charles Darwin
Agile promises to help applications teams deliver high-quality software solutions faster. It encourages
collaboration between engineering and business teams promising software more closely aligned with
business requirements. If Agile development is done right, agile delivery reveals code defects earlier in
the development cycle, decreases overall project risk, and allows quicker response to changing business
priorities.
Although many benefits of agility have been identified and visualized in organizations, some organizations
still report that the full promise of Agile remains elusive. How can we gain true agility when old habits are
so difficult to break?
We need to understand risk of piece meal approach of Agile adoption. In this approach, just adopting
sprint like iterations may not give full benefit of Agile implementations. Agile approach is not just for
development team, everyone is a part of this game. For example, if only development teams are agile and
business approach remain sequential, a key objective of Agile implementation: early discovery of issues,
is thwarted. When Agile implemented as intended, it takes madness out from product development
processes. Piece meal approach may be very dangerous and project may fail even earlier than just
following waterfall.
Agile encourages smaller teams and greater autonomy. Agile encourages us to expect change rather than
fear it. Effective overall collaboration ends the “bucket bridges” and finger pointing. It avoids
asynchronous latency and disconnected threads of email, phone calls, and other legacy media and helps
team focus on common goals. Agile also greatly focus on collaboration between Development and IT
operations (DevOps) to enable continuous delivery. Effective DevOps begins with trust. Operations team

2. trusts development team that working at Agile speed, development teams have not cut corners for the
sake of time. Although we welcome change in Agile, traditional mindset of Ops is that change introduces
risk. We need to build great DevOps trust to enable Agile effectiveness. Higher degree of automation is
expected to make agile teams more successful. Automation allows teams to eliminate manual hand-offs,
reduce errors, and accelerate overall release times.
The positive impacts to the business grows as Agile principles are extended through the organization.
The move from Agile Development to Agile Delivery entails pulling down the silos and empowering all
players to work together as a team to rapidly build quality solutions.
Expanding the business impact of Agile
An organization can ask three key questions to gauge effectiveness of its Agile efforts:
1. Are agile projects discovering code defects earlier in the lifecycle than traditional projects?
[With Agile, issues should always surface sooner]
2. Are we seeing fewer defects in finished products when I compare to current or past projects
done in traditional way?
[Agile should improve quality of finished product while decreasing cost of fixes.]
3. Are business stakeholders generally more satisfied with Agile projects?
[Agile should help business and IT better communicate expectations]
[You can download HP Whitepaper here]