1. Shifting to Agile: Are University Libraries Ready?
Kayla Ondracek – Project Manager
Nabeela Jaffer – Applications Programmer

2. “Agile software development is a set of principles for software development in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.”

3. Frameworks
Scrum (very popular! Focus on iteration, fast delivery, can’t fully understand the problem at the beginning)
Kanban (process management, just-in-time delivery)
Extreme Programming/XP (pair programming, code review, only coding features when they are needed)
Etc…

4. What does it mean to be Agile?
Manifesto Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

5. What does it mean to be Agile?
12 Principles – Highlights
Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of useful software
Delivery working software more frequently
Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
Self-organizing teams
agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

6. What are the benefits of Agile?
Clear expectations between stakeholders & team
Transparency, visibility during development
Increased stakeholder engagement
Adapt to shifting/uncertain requirements
Manage & reduce risk
Helps libraries to respond quickly to changing information environment to better serve patrons

7. University of Michigan experience
Interest in Agile principles for some time
Grassroots, experimental approach
Pockets of implementation
Learning Technologies Incubation Group
Cross-department teams
Working with vendors

8. University of Michigan experience
MHydra Prototype
Focus on creating & facilitating a self-organized, empowered team
Pair-programming & group code walk-throughs used to share knowledge and come to shared understanding of codebase
2-week iterations
Standard scrum events (standups, planning, refinement, review, retrospective)
Research Data
Development based on user stories, agreed-upon MVP (minimum viable product)
Self-organized team

9. University of Michigan experience
Publishing & Bentley Historical Library
Working with a vendor for development – DCE & Artefactual
Vendor has significant experience running as scrum
As stakeholder, U-M invited to daily stand-ups, planning, review

10. Others Private research university
Standard team composition + business analyst
UX involvement in planning and testing, reconciliation to requirements
2 week sprints, JIRA
“All-hands” meetings every 6 months to sketch out dev cycles
Self-organizing. Developers work well together
Challenge? Managing stakeholder communications & expectations
Easiest? Getting feedback at the end of a development cycle

11. Challenges Communicating core principles of Agile - meeting purposes
Shifting mindsets – Enabling the team to feel empowered
Working with “timeboxed” approach
Managing communication & increased involvement with stakeholders
Harder to involve library patrons than in classic client model

12. Landscape
Themes
Adoption timelines – some have been using Agile principles for years, some have just adopted
Project/department-based testing, then broader implementation
Flexible implementation – teams & institutions choose applicable principles, stretch principles (longer sprints, etc)

13. Are University Libraries Ready?
Yes!

14. Questions?