Agile Development Blog

On our recent webinar “Demystifying Cloud, The Next Generation Architecture” we had a number of thoughtful and tough questions related to security, intellectual property and risks. We provided answers to these questions in the recording, but I found the recent SD Times article “Cloud Providers Answer Tough Questions” an even better source. In this article, a number of experts on specific platforms from Microsoft, Google, Salesforce as well as Rally’s own Zach Nies answer questions about security, lock-in and IP.

Henry Ford didn't foresee the impact of the first car - do we foresee the true impact of the Cloud?

Daryl Plummer from Gartner also did a great job recently describing the real point of cloud computing as he reviews Russ Daniels recent Forbes article. Russ says:

“In my view, the ability to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship in this new model is one of the most promising ways to ignite the next wave of economic growth. We can no more see the full impact of the cloud than Henry Ford foresaw the impact of his desire to produce more cars in less time.”

As a result of SD Times’ tough questions and our desire to “ignite the next wave of economic growth,” we decided to talk in our next webinar with Global Logic and IBM about how to go to the cloud and mitigate risk along the way. As with any pilot, the goal is to enter wisely, learn fast and then move forward.  Given the iterative and incremental method of Agile is best suited for this fast-learning approach, we will title our next talk “Going to the Cloud – the Agile Way.”

We are structuring the content now, but I would love to hear your ideas, questions or feedback on this topic. I will also post a registration link for the webinar as soon as I have it.

Thesis: Taking a learning-first approach to your cloud efforts can help you avoid the risks of vendor lock-in, IP security and a spectacular failure

Proposed Agenda:

1. Review the innovation, benefits and risks
2. Typical approach – Choosing early, over selling, dramatic big bang
3. The Agile/Lean approach – Set-based, scientific and learning-based
4. Case study
5. Close

Last Thursday, Dave West from Forrester and I did a live webinar on Scaling Agility with Lean: Proven Methods of Operational Efficiency.

We received lots of great questions and shared them with the webinar attendees, but thought they would also be valuable to other Agile practitioners. This first series of questions tackle the obstacles of adopting Agile. Stay tuned for the remaining questions in later posts.

You can also check out the first webinar, hosted by Jean Tabaka and Johnny Scarborough from Global Logic, on Realizing the Promise of Agile: Creating Leaner, Meaner and Faster Product Development.

DW – is Dave West from Forrester

RAM – is Ryan Martens from Rally

What are the biggest blockers you see to good Agile?

DW – My pet peeves are people that resist change without really thinking about it. That treat software like car production and think that you can plan, deliver in that manner. These same people often lament the ability of the software teams to deliver good code at the right price. Software is a fundamental part of business change – If you need a new part to your business it will most likely require software, which may require development and integration. Connecting up their development with the people who have the problem is the first step to success, empowering teams to try new things and question the status quo in support of those business needs is key. Organizations that put artificial walls between the problem and the solution are the biggest blockers. These may come in the form of planning processes, business access, travel budgets, governance models, standards or culture.

RAM – Good Agile development is a mindset change like Dave is describing above. Overly aggressive or passive plans are the biggest blockers to “good Agile.” You need to think about this change as incremental and iterative with a strong focus on continuous improvement and learning through inspect and adapt feedback loops.

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