Strategy & Leadership Agile at IBM: software developers teach a new dance step to management M. Randall Robert Article information: To cite this document: M. Randall Robert , (2014),"Agile at IBM: software developers teach a new dance step to management", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 42 Iss 2 pp. 26 - 29 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/SL-01-2014-0003 Downloaded on: 31 January 2016, At: 10:29 (PT) References: this document contains references to 0 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 706 times since 2014* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: H. Frank Cervone, (2011),"Understanding agile project management methods using Scrum", OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 27 Iss 1 pp. 18-22 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10650751111106528 Stephen Denning, (2013),"Why Agile can be a game changer for managing continuous innovation in many industries", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 41 Iss 2 pp. 5-11 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878571311318187 Subhas Misra, Vinod Kumar, Uma Kumar, Kamel Fantazy, Mahmud Akhter, (2012),"Agile software development practices: evolution, principles, and criticisms", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 29 Iss 9 pp. 972-980 http:// dx.doi.org/10.1108/02656711211272863 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:525661 [] For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. 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Randall I n dynamic marketplaces where products, software and services are increasingly interlinked, the winners are likely to be those firms that have mastered radical management approaches that promote swift and continuous innovation. In many industries, however, time lags and buggy products are all too prevalent at a time when marketplace success depends upon learning to adapt quickly to changing customer needs. Steve Denning, a management expert who has long been an advocate for fixing the way leaders control the innovation process, outlines the problem and potential solution: Convoluted processes and long time lags used to be the norm in software development. Large software companies employed teams of specialists to gather requirements, design the solution, then build the solution, then test the solution, and then deliver the solution. The problem was the ‘‘solution’’ might or might not match what they had hoped to build, years before when they started, and or what customers might actually want at the time it was delivered. Projects were generally late, over budget and full of bugs. Many projects were never even completed. Because so much money was being wasted, more nimble work processes had to be developed. The cure for sclerotic processes was Agile software development. In Agile, self-organizing teams work in short cycles called ‘‘sprints’’ and develop the features and products in a series of projects or modules to facilitate rapid innovation. The work of project teams enables the product to continuously evolve in the light of the experience they gain and through customer feedback [. . .] Agile software development [. . .] now is a huge movement involving thousands of firms all around the world[1]. For insight into how Agile is being implemented at a leading software services firm with clients in hundreds of industries, Strategy & Leadership asked Rob Purdie, Agile Practice Lead for the IBM Design Lab in New York City, how these software development methods were contributing to the success of key digital marketing initiatives. He is an Agile coach, facilitator, trainer, management consultant and the founder and co-organizer of the NYC Scrum User Group. His interviewer, Robert M. Randall, is S&L’s editor and the co-editor of The Portable MBA in Strategy , 1st and 2nd editions. PAGE 26 j STRATEGY & LEADERSHIP j VOL. 42 NO. 2 2014, pp. 26-29, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1087-8572 DOI 10.1108/SL-01-2014-0003 Downloaded by National University of Singapore At 10:29 31 January 2016 (PT) Strategy & Leadership : How does IBM use Agile software development tools, specifically Scrum? Rob Purdie: First, a little background on Agile. The Agile software development movement addresses a problem that many organizations face: namely, how to develop new products faster, with higher quality, while at the same time accommodating changing requirements. Rather than deliver the product of a large software development project after a long slog of several months or years and simply hope it works for the customer, Agile methods provide a way for cross-disciplinary teams to deliver new products incrementally and iteratively. Scrum is a management framework for new product development. It is a set of simple rules that teams agree to follow and by doing so, learn as they improve the product through iteration based on customer feedback. Teams work in fixed-period iterations, or ‘‘sprints,’’ during which they meet to review progress, discuss insights, and decide on which goals they want to achieve next. In the general case at the IBM Marketing and Communications Lab, we work in two-week sprints in teams of seven to ten people. By working in iterations, our teams minimize the risk of going too far down the wrong path. Rather than spend lots of time upfront chasing an imperfect plan, we take time along the way to hypothesize what would work better and whether we need to change course. We conduct experiments in short iterations, and at the end of each sprint deliver a working increment of the product that is ready to be shipped. And at the end of each sprint we measure the results of our work – we want to learn what works and what doesn’t, and move to the next sprint having learned something. All of our work benefits from the flexibility this approach provides. S&L : How do you break down the Agile/Scrum process to see if it makes sense for a project? Purdie: Whether you are developing software or designing digital marketing experiences, as we often do at the IBM Marketing & Communications Lab, there are some basic steps you want to take. First, you want to make the case for Agile and identify projects that would benefit from its application which, in my opinion, is the case wherever and whenever requirements are likely to change. You need skills and planning techniques for Agile execution. Your teams can be distributed or co-located, but they really need to agree play the game by the rules. At the end of each sprint, the team presents what they’ve completed to the business owner and any interested stakeholders and ask for feedback. Clearly, Agile methods take practice, and effective outcomes come with time and leadership. S&L : What kinds of marketing projects that use Scrum are you working on at the Design Lab? Purdie: We use Scrum to manage digital marketing initiatives for IBM’s key growth areas, such as Cloud Computing and Big Data and Analytics. We have dedicated teams that focus on each of these areas, and we work with individual business units and IBM’s agency partners to improve and evolve the digital marketing properties. The Lab also develops digital properties that help IBM connect with specific categories of clients including Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Financial Officers (CMO), and so on. For example, we maintain a ‘‘knowledge service’’ for Chief Marketing Officers, which provides content about how the function of marketing is transforming as a result of Big Data. The site includes Q&As with industry thought leaders, case studies from a range of industries and collaboration opportunities around the evolving role of the CMO and what skills are required as the profession evolves. S&L : Is the Scrum approach to digital marketing working? Purdie: I think this approach can yield better results than laboring over a project in a vacuum for months and months. In the case of the projects at the IBM Marketing & Communications Lab, our teams can discover, through continual incremental experiments, what leads to more sales conversions, or what types of interaction patterns yield to greater online engagement. Eventually you can track results all the way to sales wins and revenue, and see what kinds of changes can lead to better outcomes. The traditional approach to software development is to define, design, develop and test everything – before delivering anything. But that yields individual software projects that fail VOL. 42 NO. 2 2014 j STRATEGY & LEADERSHIP j PAGE 27 Downloaded by National University of Singapore At 10:29 31 January 2016 (PT) more than they succeed. More than 80 percent are usually late and over budget. Also, with the typical software development project, only 20 percent of features are used, and nearly 50 percent are never used. That’s a high degree of failure and waste. With Agile, you can reduce waste by prioritizing features based on relative business value, evaluating and re-swizzling as you go along. You can also change course when you realize what you are doing isn’t delivering value. For example, we can track through continual testing whether a different registration process, or varied placement of content, affects engagement with our audiences. What’s different from the old way is that we’ll make these changes in weeks and we’ll change them incrementally. Such small changes are easier to make as we go along, and we see the benefits sooner, versus waiting for a complete redesign. Rather than spending time waiting for a project to be ‘‘close to perfect,’’ with Agile, we can see business value sooner. S&L : Can you give an example of how this works at IBM? Purdie: One of our business units came to us for an overhaul of their destination website. They wanted to make massive improvements to increase the number of sales leads. We created a dedicated seven-person team at the Design Lab that, using Scrum, learned what works better at various entry point of the site. We cleared up inconsistencies, found out what works better in each case and then worked with the business units so they could deliver changes quickly at scale throughout the site. The IBM Institute for Business Value conducted a study in 2012 in which business executives identified five top trends that will impact the competitiveness of their enterprises over the next five years – including mobile devices, the explosion of unstructured data, cloud computing and intelligent and connected devices, such as sensors. According to the study, most executives said that software development and delivery plays a big role in helping them take advantage of these technology trends for competitive advantage. But only 25 percent felt that their teams used it effectively. What the study calls an ‘‘execution gap’’ – the difference between the need to deliver software effectively and the ability to do so – translates into missed opportunities for most of companies surveyed[2]. S&L : What other opportunities does Agile/Scrum offer IBM clients? Purdie: Aside from the work at the lab, IBM works with companies to map out their strategy for software delivery and understand the roadmap to manage their systems. Agile is an important component, but not the only component. IBM works with companies to help them position Agile within their organization, promote adoption, develop or improve skills and measure outcomes. Many of our clients use Agile to reduce costs and risks, especially when the product development or engineering teams are distributed – requiring much greater precision in planning and executing against requirements. IBM also uses Agile within its software product development and application delivery. S&L : Can you give examples where Agile/Scrum could meet resistance, and what can be done about it? Purdie: I can see a scenario where teams make the mistake of equating Agile with a free-for-all. In other words, classic disciplines in requirements, design, approval and testing ‘‘ Rather than deliver the product of a large software development project after a long slog of several months or years and simply hope it works for the customer, Agile methods provide a way for cross-disciplinary teams to deliver new products incrementally and iteratively. ’’ PAGE 28 j STRATEGY & LEADERSHIP j VOL. 42 NO. 2 2014 Downloaded by National University of Singapore At 10:29 31 January 2016 (PT) are abandoned in the need for speed. If the teams fail, this tarnishes Agile in the company, and resistance builds. Also, under the classic software development ‘‘waterfall innovation’’ method, the business is conditioned to gathering requirements sequentially, where time can be managed against other priorities of the job. Agile methods require focus and dedication, and the business needs to understand this commitment at the outset. IT leaders need to anticipate the new way of working. Rather than gathering requirements and then disappearing for months while designs are completed, Agile requires leaders and teams to work and learn through problems, designs and options in an open and transparent environment. It places new demands on technical leaders in terms of negotiation and planning skills, which may be far outside a technical developers’ comfort zone. S&L : Could Agile/Scrum be increasingly essential to the future of product development and manufacturing? Purdie: Definitely. Because so many products for consumers and businesses include embedded software systems, developing products in the future will require deeper collaboration across multiple engineering disciplines and marketing teams. The pace of product innovation is picking up – and to be competitive requires organizations to execute in a disciplined manner with agility and speed. And Agile methods could be the answer. Notes 1. Denning, S. ‘‘The Best-Kept Management Secret in the World: Agile’’, Forbes , April 9, 2012 www. forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/04/09/the-best-kept-management-secret-on-the-planet-agile/ 2. The IBM Institute for Business Value study in 2012: www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/ thoughtleadership/softwareedge/) 3. Denning, S. ‘‘Why Agile can be a game changer for managing continuous innovation in many industries,’’ Strategy & Leadership , Vol. 41 No. 2013, pp. 5-11. Principles of scrum[3] The leading variant of agile is scrum, a set of management practices that facilitate agility. Its major principles are: B Work is organized in short cycles. B Management does not interrupt the team during a work cycle. B The team reports to the customer, not the manager. B The team estimates how much time work will take. B The team decides how much work it can do in an iteration. B The team decides how to do the work in the iteration. B The team measures its own performance. B Work goals are defined before each cycle starts. B Work goals are defined through user stories. B Impediments to getting the work done are systematically removed. VOL. 42 NO. 2 2014 j STRATEGY & LEADERSHIP j PAGE 29 To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints Downloaded by National University of Singapore At 10:29 31 January 2016 (PT)