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From the Editor 
Liz Barnett is the Editor in Chief of the Agile Journal and Principal Analyst at EZ Insight Inc. Previously Liz spent 10 years as a Vice President and Research Analyst at Forrester Research, joining Forrester as a result of its acquisition of Giga Information Group. Liz held management positions at Accenture, PepsiCo, and Atelier Research. She also was the Research Director for the advanced software development and advanced network computing research services at New Science Associates, prior to its acquisition by Gartner Group. Liz earned her B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering at Cornell University.
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Sunday, 11 March 2007 |
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Many Agile projects start as grassroots, often surreptitious, initiatives. When successful, team members do their best to publicize their accomplishments and use the project as a baseline on which to launch others. But it is unlikely that these projects can lead to company-wide adoption without support from above. Management from both the business and IT sides of the house must buy into these new ways of building software and must understand the essential differences that Agile processes espouse. Top-down adoption is not about imposing Agile practices from the top down - it's about support from upper management. IT organizations that achieve this level of support are the ones that successfully deploy Agile processes across a wide range of business projects.
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Saturday, 10 February 2007 |
At Sapient, using Agile processes on distributed and offshore projects is the rule, not the exception. I don't typically focus on a single organization or product in an article but rather on a broader set of Agile development issues. However, in the years that I've worked with Sapient consultants and clients, I've been impressed by the ways in which this company has adapted its practices to suit business needs. At this critical point in Agile development maturity, Sapient distinguishes itself by applying Agile practices to a wide range of projects and project types. This article looks at some of the key success factors that Sapient consultants have found to contribute to their projects' success.
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Tuesday, 09 January 2007 |
How do you know if an Agile project has succeeded? The typical response I get to that question is a blank stare or moment of silence, depending on whether the meeting is in person or by phone. And if I do get an answer, it's usually accompanied by a "we're just starting" comment. The challenge is twofold: development organizations are notoriously weak in collecting metrics and reporting on their projects and, when using Agile processes, many teams are challenged to demonstrate if the change from traditional approaches was worth it. As IT costs and business pressures escalate, it is critical that a development shop can demonstrate its value to the business. Proponents claim that Agile processes help do this, but they must back up those claims with numbers.
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Sunday, 10 December 2006 |
By all accounts, 2006 was an important year in the world of Agile development. Agile processes have hit the mainstream, with even very traditional IT shops showing interest (if not yet investment) in changing the way they develop software. The numbers are growing: over 1100 people attended the Agile 2006 conference in Minneapolis; over 15,000 people participate in Yahoo groups on topics including general Agile development, XP, Scrum, and Agile management (although many belong to more than one group); 700 Agile developers responded to the VersionOne study with their perspectives; and so on. But there's still more ground to cover. There are too many variants of Agile processes, confusing potential adopters. There is little to no experience using Agile processes for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications and related integration projects. Management is focused on business value, governance, and software delivery while Agile advocates still focus on the developer community. Hopefully, 2007 will be a year to address these issues so that Agile processes can become the norm rather than the exception for software developers.
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Sunday, 12 November 2006 |
Agile lore says that Agile processes are best suited to projects that are run at a single locations, staff teams no larger than 15 members, enjoy full-time customer participation, and involve development of new rather than existing (and likely highly integrated) applications. But fewer and fewer projects meets those guidelines and the complexity inherent in these projects is only increasing. So in order for Agile processes to truly meet the needs of large organizations, they must scale. In fact, many companies and consultants have effectively adapted their Agile processes to meet current-day requirements. As I work with IT organizations and independent software vendors (ISVs), I've found quite a range of best practices that organizations can adopt to achieve large-scale Agile development.
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Sunday, 08 October 2006 |
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 When projects fail, regardless of the methodology, project management gets the blame. Developers can write great code, QA staff can find bugs (albeit some more quickly than others), and subsequent iterations can address any gaps or misinterpretations of customer requirements. But since the project managers are visible to the business staff and have overall responsibility for delivering the project, they take the heat. Even though Agile projects emphasize self-organizing teams and tight IT/customer collaboration, they're not immune. Organizations must learn how to manage Agile projects - a pretty big challenge since most do a lousy job of managing more traditional IT projects!
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Written by Liz Barnett
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Sunday, 10 September 2006 |
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This summer over 700 developers and managers responded to an Agile development survey conducted by VersionOne and sponsored by the Agile Alliance. The results are in with some very interesting results. Above all, this survey shows that Agile practices deliver on their promises and can deliver significant ROI across many types and sizes of organizations.
I'll start by saying that the intention of the survey was to determine how Agile processes are being implemented - not to determine the size or penetration of the Agile market. Thus, the survey participants do not represent average developers. The survey was distributed specifically to "Agile aware" or "Agile practicing" developers including VersionOne's customer base and newsletter list, most Agile Alliance members, readers of the Agile Journal, and some other technology sites such as theserverside.com.
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