© 2012 Scott W. Ambler Agility at Scale Survey 2012 Summer 2012 Scott W. Ambler

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler 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 Some slides have notes

© 2012 Scott W. Ambler 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 – pagewww.ambysoft.com/surveys/ –Tweet –Posting to Data, summary, and slides downloadable from 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 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 © 2012 Scott W. Ambler 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 On your successful/failed agile projects, how distributed were team members?

Agile Experiences with Team Size © 2012 Scott W. Ambler On your successful/failed agile projects, how many IT team members were there?

Agile Experiences with Compliance © 2012 Scott W. Ambler On your successful/failed agile projects, was compliance applicable? Note: Self imposed = CMMI, ISO, …

Agile Experiences with Domain Complexity © 2012 Scott W. Ambler 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 © 2012 Scott W. Ambler 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 © 2012 Scott W. Ambler Question: In which technical situations has the organization (un)successfully applied agile approaches? (Please check all that apply)

Agile Experiences with Organizational Complexity © 2012 Scott W. Ambler Question: What challenges have (un)successful teams have experienced while adopting agile approaches? (Please check all that apply)

Agile Experiences with Enterprise Awareness © 2012 Scott W. Ambler 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 We can help. © 2012 Scott W. Ambler