Digital Focus Unveils Market Survey Results at Agile2006

Posted by Deborah Hartmann Preuss on Jul 26, 2006

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A survey conducted by Agile software development industry leader, Digital Focus, concludes that interest in Agile development methods is growing across the IT landscape with 81 percent of those surveyed either actively using Agile development methodologies within their organization or looking for opportunities to do so. Agile practices address the critical challenge facing organizations today -- having the flexibility to respond to a changing business environment. Digital Focus president Erin Smith said:

"Our survey shows that Agile is gaining acceptance as a primary tool to meet today's IT challenges.  Agile's learning-driven approach to development, with its emphasis on continuous communication, testing and change, is fundamentally different from the traditional 'waterfall' methodology widely used today.  The survey underscores the fact that preconceived notions about software development -- namely that it should adhere to a static plan created and requirements defined at the outset of a project -- remain a central challenge to the wide adoption of agile."

Key findings of the Digital Focus Agile 2006 Market Survey include:

• 46 percent of mid-sized companies are already adopting Agile practices company-wide; and while only 12 percent of large companies are using agile practices company-wide, 44 percent of these organizations are using Agile practices on a project;
  
• 51 percent of all participants reported that the lack of knowledge or skill is one of the top three barriers to adopting Agile;
  
• 56 percent of the executives surveyed saw the lack of internal experience and/or skills as a barrier to adopting Agile processes;
  
•  IT and non-IT professionals are looking for agile practices to solve different problems: 51 percent of non-IT professionals are looking to agile to improve speed and predictability in software development, while 47 percent of IT professionals look to agile to help them manage the scope of projects while being more responsive to change.

The Digital Focus Agile 2006 Market Survey was developed to understand the extent to which Agile development is moving into the mainstream of IT practices, to better assess the drivers towards Agile adoption, and to identify the barriers leaders must overcome in order to establish agile development as a mainstream approach within their organizations. The survey sought to identify differences between how IT professionals and non-IT professionals view the drivers to change to agile development, and the challenges organizations face in adopting agile methods.  Launched at the Agile 2005 Conference to assess the state of agile adoption, the survey compiles the responses of 136 executives across 128 organizations ranging from less than 25 to over 5,000 employees. Mid-sized companies are defined as having 100-1,000 employees; large companies have greater than 1,000 employees.

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