July 2008 "Hot Button" Survey Results

In July we asked, "To what extent has your dev team gone agile?" Those who have gone fully Agile represent an impressive 41% of the respondents.

Of those who have gone fully Agile -- dev teams are officially Agile or SCRUM -- 71% report they are satisfied with the results, despite the occasional downsides.

"The ability to release often and incrementally has shortened the feedback loop substantially," wrote one PM. "However, the absence of test and QA does cause some things to slip."

"We continually work on refining how non-Dev participants engage in the process, especially designers," another PM commented. "It's hard to find the right rhythm between design work and dev work, i.e., Should we design one Sprint ahead? How does this affect our nimbleness?"

Another 35% of organizations are trying Agile with a few teams, or adopting parts of Agile -- usually a combination of shorter dev cycles and lighter requirements documents.

This comment reflects a challenge many organizations in this category are facing --figuring out how and when to implement Agile in order to get the desired results:
"We seem to have informally adopted this process and I think we'd be more successful if we had some consistency. We deliver fairly quickly and have left functionality on the shelf, but what we have delivered hasn't always met our revenue expectations."


Agile has gained a foothold in three out of four organizations responding to last month's Hot Button Survey.

All is not rosy in the Land of Agile, especially when extending the method beyond the core Development work. As one "somewhat not satisfied" adopter wrote: "The lack of solid MRDs and/or technical specifications is a huge point of organizational angst."

Agile definitely has gained a foothold in development teams, and PMs are learning that it takes a broad skill set to succeed. Do you have all the tools you need? The next Software Product Management Intensive Workshop will expand your knowledge of Agile and other techniques.

Thanks to everyone who responded and commented!

Contact us to suggest a future Hot Button topic.  We'd love to hear your ideas!