© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Agility at Scale Survey 2012Summer 2012

Scott W. Ambler

www.scottwambler.com

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

How To Use These Slides

• I have provided these slides, and the raw data behind them, so that others can use them in their own work.

• You may reuse all, or a part of, this slide deck as long as you provide a clear reference to the source.

• The suggested reference is: Results from Scott Ambler’s 2012 Agility at Scale Survey posted at www.agilemodeling.com/surveys/

Some slides have notes

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

About the Survey

• June 2012 to early September 2012• Originally called the “DDJ IT State of the Union Survey – June 2012”

so as to not reveal the actual topic of the survey• Survey link included in:

– June 2012 DDJ Agile article at www.ddj.com– www.ambysoft.com/surveys/ page– Tweet by @scottwambler– Posting to ambysoft@yahoogroups.com

• Data, summary, and slides downloadable from www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

• 113 respondents– 27% were developers or modelers, 39% were managers or team lead/Scrum

masters, 17% were consultants– 80% had 10+ years in IT– 60% worked in orgs of 500+ people– 47% North American, 27% European, 14% Asia Pacific

•Goal of the survey was to find evidence that organizations where applying agile strategies at all aspects and levels of scale AND were do so both successfully and unsuccessfully. This is clearly true.

Agile Adoption and Success Rates

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: To your knowledge, has your organization successfully applied agile techniques/strategies/processes on

one or more development projects?

Implication: 86% of respondents work in organizations that are at least trying agile techniques.

Agile Failure Rates

SOME failed agile projects;

55%

No failures; 27%

Don't know; 17%

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: To your knowledge, has the organization unsuccessfully applied agile techniques/strategies/processes

on one or more development projects?

Implication: Agile adoption isn’t always easy. However, the majority organizations are experiencing success with agile.

Agile Experiences with Geographic Distribution

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

On your successful/failed agile projects, how distributed were team members?

Agile Experiences with Team Size

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

On your successful/failed agile projects, how many IT team members were there?

Agile Experiences with Compliance

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

On your successful/failed agile projects, was compliance applicable?

Note: Self imposed = CMMI, ISO, …

Agile Experiences with Domain Complexity

High Risk

Complex

Medium complexity

Straightforward

Pilot Projects

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Had Successes Had Failures

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: From the point of view of the problem/business domain, at what level(s) of complexity has the organization (un)successfully applied agile

techniques? (Please check all that apply)

Agile Experiences with Organizational Distribution

Outsourcing

Partner organizations

Contractors/consultants

Several countries

Several divisions

Same division

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Had Successes Had Failures

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: In which of the following situations has the organization (un)successfully applied agile techniques? (Please check all that apply)

Agile Experiences with Technical Complexity

Multi-platform

Single platform

Fix legacy data

Access legacy data

Fix legacy systems

System integration

Package/COTS

Stand-alone

Greenfield

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Had Successes Had Failures

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: In which technical situations has the organization (un)successfully applied agile approaches? (Please check all that apply)

Agile Experiences with Organizational Complexity

Waterfall culture

Lack of trust

Lack of stakeholder involvement

Waterfall governance

Specialized IT staff

Command and control culture

Differing visions

Management resistance

Stakeholder resistance

Needed coaching

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Had Successes Had Failures

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: What challenges have (un)successful teams have experienced while adopting agile approaches? (Please check all that apply)

Agile Experiences with Enterprise Awareness

Ent Tech Arch

Ent Bus Arch

Ent data

Reuse

Port Mgmt

Proc engineering

Governance

Operations

Support

Don't know

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Had Successes Had Failures

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Question: Have your agile project teams (un)successfully worked with any of the following teams within the organization? (Please check all that apply)

About SWA+A

Scott W. Ambler + Associates (SWA+A) is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations adopt disciplined agile strategies, particularly at scale. We offer training, coaching, and transformation services.

As you’ve seen in this survey it is possible to succeed at scaling agile. You’ve also seen that some organizations are struggling and could very likely use help.

Our website is www.ScottWAmbler.com. We can help.

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/