9TH ANNUAL State of Agile™ Survey VERSIONONE.COM ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. STATE OF AGILE Executive Summary AGILE MOMENTUM MEASURING AGILE SUCCESS CONTINUES We asked several new questions this year to find out how organizations measure the success of agile, both on a Agile development—once a predominantly team-based day-to-day basis and for their agile initiatives overall. At the practice—is grabbing the attention of the business. This project level, most respondents tracked velocity, iteration year’s State of Agile™ survey found that more burndown and release burndown. The value of agile overall companies—and bigger companies—are scaling and was measured primarily by on-time delivery, product quality, embracing agile as part of the larger vision to deliver and customer/user satisfaction metrics. software faster, easier, and smarter. Ninety-four percent (94%) of all organizations surveyed now practice agile. In 2013, the majority of respondents had SCALING METHODOLOGIES fewer than 1,000 people in their software organization. But AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS in 2014, approximately 35% of respondents had more than With more energy put into scaling agile across the 5,000 people in their organization, and 20% worked in very enterprise, the 2014 survey results showed more interest in large organizations with more than 20,000 people. the various scaling methodologies such as the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®), Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), Disciplined In addition, 45% of this year’s respondents worked in Agile Delivery (DAD), Scrum of Scrums, Agile Portfolio development organizations where the majority of their Management (APM) and others. Which were the preferred teams are agile. Contrast this with the 2009 report, which scaling methodologies of the year? The overwhelming found that (31%) of the respondents worked in response was Scrum of Scrums (69%), followed by internal organizations with only zero to two teams practicing agile. methods (25%), SAFe (19%), and Lean (18%). Agile is spreading geographically, too. From 2012 to 2014, According to the data, the number-one tip for scaling agile the percentage of respondents who had distributed teams successfully is having consistent process and practices practicing agile jumped from 35% to 80%. (42%), followed by executive sponsorship (40%) and the implementation of a common platform across teams (39%). BENEFITS OF AGILE There is plenty of evidence to conclude that agile works. AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT For four years running, the top three benefits of agile development remain: PRACTICES AND TOOLS Scrum still dominates as the agile methodology of choice 1. Ability to manage changing priorities (87%) (56%), while pure XP - practiced by nearly one-quarter of respondents in the 2006 report was virtually non-existent in 2. Team productivity (84%) 2014 (<1%). Project visibility (82%) 3. In general, the use of agile project management tools was Furthermore, 53% of respondents said that the majority, if up. In fact, in a year-over-year comparison, respondents’ not all, of their agile projects have been successful. future plans to use various tools doubled in every category of tool sets. Most people used Microsoft® Excel or Project; When asked what causes agile to fail, respondents pointed however, satisfaction rates were the highest with solutions to lack of experience with agile methods (44%). built specifically for agile. The top three preferred project management solutions were VersionOne (92%), Atlassian/JIRA (86%) and LeanKit (85%). VERSIONONE.COM 2 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. Scaled Agile Framework and SAFe are registered trademarks of Lengwell, LLC. Respondent Demographics 4 ABOUT THE SURVEY The 9th annual State of Agile survey was conducted between Company Experience and Adoption 6 July and October, 2014. Sponsored by VersionOne, the Benefits of Agile 8 survey invited individuals from a broad range of industries in the Agile Methods and Practices 9 global software development community. A total of 3,925 completed responses were Agile Success and Metrics 10 collected, analyzed and prepared into a summary report by Scaling Agile 13 Analysis.Net Research, an independent survey consultancy. Project Management Tools 14 VERSIONONE.COM 3 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. 9th ANNUAL STATE OF AGILE STATE OF AGILE™ Respondent Demographics SURVEY SIZE OF ORGANIZATION WHO RESPONDED Project/Program Manager 24% 53% 35% 20% Development Sta of all had more worked in 22% respondents than 5,000 very large Development Leadership had more people in organizations 14% than 1,000 their entire with more people organization than 20,000 Other (ScrumMaster or Internal Coach) 13% in their people software Product Owner/ organization Business Analyst 13% Consultant/Trainer 8% IT Sta 3% C-Level 3% 21% from 65% Europe from North America The majority were from North America and Europe. VERSIONONE.COM 4 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. 9th ANNUAL STATE OF AGILE STATE OF AGILE™ Respondent Demographics SURVEY INDUSTRIES Most respondents (25%) worked for software/ISV companies. In addition, a significant number of respondents worked for financial services (12%) and professional services (11%) organizations. *Write-in responses were commonly Education, Consulting, Energy, Oil, Construction, and Non-Profit 25% 12% 11% 11% 7% 6% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 1% 1% Public Software (ISV)Financial ServicesProfessionalOther* Services Healthcare GovernmentManufacturingTelecom Retail Media & EntertainmentInternet ServiceInsurance TransportationConsumer ProductsUtilities Services PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH AGILE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES Ninety percent (90%) of respondents said they are at least knowledgeable (1+ year of experience) about agile software development techniques. Additionally, 58% said they are ‘very’ to ‘extremely’ knowledgeable about agile (3+ years of experience). 28% 30% 32% 10% Extremely Very Moderately Minimal/ knowledgeable… knowledgeable… knowledgeable… no knowledge… 5+ years 3-4 years 1-2 years Less than 6 months VERSIONONE.COM 5 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. 9th ANNUAL STATE OF AGILE STATE OF AGILE™ Company Experience and Adoption SURVEY COMPANY EXPERIENCE HOW MANY? HOW LONG? The number of organizations that practice agile. 2014 2013 <1 year: 15% 8% 1-2 years: 29% 40% 94% 3-5 years: 32% 33% 5+ years: 24% 19% 2014 Approximately 24% of respondents worked in organizations that have practiced agile for greater than five years, up from 19% in 2013. PERCENTAGE OF TEAMS USING AGILE A total of 45% of respondents worked in 36% development organizations where the More than half of 5% our teams are majority of their teams are agile. Only 5% of None of our teams are agile respondents work in a completely agile traditional/non-agile development organization. Contrast this with the 2009 report, in which (31%) of the respondents worked where there were only zero to two teams practicing agile! 9% All of our 50% teams are agile Less than half of our teams are agile VERSIONONE.COM 6 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. 9th ANNUAL STATE OF AGILE STATE OF AGILE™ Company Experience and Adoption SURVEY REASONS FOR ADOPTING AGILE Consistent with last year, most respondents adopted agile practices to accelerate product delivery (59%) or enhance their ability to manage changing priorities (56%). However, in 2014, productivity (53%) has moved into the top 3, outranking last year’s #3 response—improved IT and business alignment. *Respondents were able to make multiple selections. Accelerate product delivery 59% Enhance ability to manage changing priorities 56% Increase productivity 53% Enhance software quality 46% Enhance delivery predictability 44% Improve business/IT alignment 40% Improve project visibility 40% Reduce project risk 38% Improve team morale 26% Improve engineering discipline 25% Reduce project cost 23% Increase software maintainability 22% Better manage distributed teams 20% DISTRIBUTED AGILE MATURITY AGILE TEAMS More than 90% of respondents’ organizations had adopted agile in their software organizations. Nearly 80% of respondents had at least some distributed teams practicing agile within their organizations, up from 35% just two years earlier. 34% 42% 18% Had teams that Had teams ranging Had teams with are in the early from very early to mature adoption adoption phase mature adoption 2014 2012 with agile VERSIONONE.COM 7 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc. All rights reserved. State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc. 9th ANNUAL STATE OF AGILE STATE OF AGILE™ Benefits of Agile SURVEY of respondents said implementing agile improved 87% their ability to manage changing priorities. said that the majority, if not all, of their 53% agile projects have been successful. ACTUAL IMPROVEMENTS FROM IMPLEMENTING AGILE For four years running, the top three benefits of adopting agile remain the same: manage changing priorities (87%), team productivity (84%), and project visibility (82%). % GOT BETTER % NO CHANGE % DON’T KNOW % GOT WORSE Ability to manage changing priorities 87 2 10 <1 Increased team productivity 384 12 1 Improved project visibility 482 13 <1 Increased team morale/motivation 79 6 12 3 Better delivery predictability 79 6 12 2 Enhanced software quality 78 6 15 2 Faster time to market 777 15 1 Reduced project risk 76 6 17 <1 Improved business/IT alignment 75 6 18 1 Improved engineering discipline 72 7 20 2 Enhanced software maintainability 968 21 2 Better manage distributed teams 59 12 27 2 VERSIONONE.COM 8 ©2015 VersionOne, Inc.