Enterprise Agile Delivery Ensures Agile at Scale

Devops and Agile at Scale

Agile is moving into the enterprise fast and it’s not coming alone. In the latest survey by Diego Lo Giudice, VP and Principle analyst at Forrester, The State of Agile 2017: Agile at Scale, two things are very apparent; one, companies, even the enterprises, realize Agile is an organizational must and, two, its success is connected to the implementation of DevOps alongside.

Agile adoption is growing. A steady and consistent rise since 2013, the percent of development teams in the organization using Agile practices has doubled to about 50%. This is no surprise given that Agile development has become the backbone to global innovation, driving some of the greatest technology advancements. In fact, with Agile growing, we see that those organizations that have implemented Agile, continue to expand the practice, with 56% of firms labeled Agile experts.

The Business Benefit

Agile techniques, implemented correctly, create more value for the business, compared to traditional methods. The benefits of Agile stem from three core areas:

  • Closer alignment of business and tech
  • Increased release frequency
  • Business value delivered more quickly

Closer Alignment of Business and Tech

Agile delivery, built on a lean framework, syncs both delivery and operations teams to the same objectives while also aligning all stakeholders involved in change to the core business goals. When implementing Agile, 66% of Agile experts claim better collaboration between business, testing, development and delivery teams.

Increased Release Frequency

Release frequency is a strategic IT objective to many organizations. Moving to a more rapid release cadence ensures IT delivers on business needs as quickly as possible. As opposed to the traditional waterfall method, Agile allows IT teams to commit to the release of incremental pieces of value, features over projects. Working this way, 83% of Agile plus DevOps firms said they have improved release cadence, compared with the 74% of those firms that have not integrated the two frameworks together.

Business Value Delivered More Quickly

The Forrester survey shows that 59% of Agile expert firms claim they achieve faster value across the board. While 69% of those who implement Agile and DevOps claim to realize business value faster. The results prove that Agile plus DevOps is the best possible method for organizations looking to achieve Agile at scale.

Forrester, The State of Agile 2017: Agile at Scale

 Agile Plus DevOps, Why it Works

Agile is about moving quickly, the ability to reassess and adapt at any point along the project. DevOps is about automating the processes between software development and IT teams, to build, test and release quality software. DevOps is complementary of Agile with both practices sharing the core idea of building a culture of collaboration between teams. Together, the practices set an organization on the right “digital journey” for customer experience, and by improving it, research has proven, revenue grows.

Agile in the Enterprise Today

The problem, however, with both Agile and DevOps is getting up and running throughout large enterprises. In fact, the Forrester survey found that 40% of ISVs said to have more than 75% of their teams working in Agile as opposed to only 24% of enterprise.

Working in an Agile enterprise, requires IT managers to support their business partners to build fast paced, integrated and continuous planning cycles that result in the frequent delivery of value in the form of features. Meeting constant change is impossible with waterfall methodologies and long quarterly release cycles.

To adapt to an environment where change is the new normal, project management leaders and solution delivery leaders are expanding Agile methods. However, as opposed to ISVs, Agile in the enterprise requires significant culture, organizational and process changes, that are not inherent to the working models in place. In fact, things like executive leadership and skills still lag in the enterprise and behavioral change is still a top impediment to the organizational change required. So how can the enterprise address the gaps?

Achieving Enterprise Agile Delivery

Scaling Agile capabilities across the enterprise can be difficult due to siloed teams, multiple solutions and different release methodologies. Organizations need to adopt an Enterprise Agile Delivery [EAD] solution that enables them to continuously deliver value by aligning application delivery to strategic business objectives while accelerating release frequency.

With collaboration and visibility across the organization, EAD provides real-time visibility into the delivery pipelines of demand streams, e.g, business requirements, so that risk is managed more effectively, and value is delivered more often and safer. And, by syncing everyone from business, testing, development and delivery teams with connected activities and workflows focused on the same objectives, enterprise ensure the release of new, better customer experiences.

Enterprise Agile Delivery ensures Agile at scale so that IT can create more value for the business, faster than traditional methods.

Read how to overcome the challenges of scaling Agile, how Agile and DevOps drive digital success and best practices to achieve Enterprise Agile Delivery, in the complimentary Forrester report, The State of Agile 2017: Agile at Scale. Download it now to start your journey to Agile.

Forrester, The State of Agile 2017: Agile at Scale,

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