Implementing and Scaling Agile in the Enterprise

Although the Agile movement has its roots in the independent software development community, Agile transformation has officially become a mainstream concern for enterprise organizations across all industries. 94% of respondents in VersionOne’s 2017 State of Agile Report describe that there is some kind of Agile initiative underway at their organization—and only 23% of those respondents work in the software industry. For small and large companies alike, in industries ranging from financial services to healthcare and retail, Agile is a big deal.

Unfortunately, Agile is not always a big success. That same report suggests that, although 94% of respondents’ organizations are approaching Agile in some way, only 8% of respondents believe that Agile is being practiced consistently by all the teams in their organization. As with many other organizational change initiatives, Agile transformation is much easier in theory than it is in practice; and it’s much easier to start than to finish.

We’ll begin with a high-level history of Agile, describe its appeal to enterprise organizations in particular, and examine a few reasons why Agile transformations tend to fall short of delivering the desired results.

What Is Agile, and Why Do Enterprises Care About It?

The term Agile refers to a set of practices that emerged from the software development community in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The use of the word “Agile” to describe these practices ...