Is your corporate culture blocking your agile adoption?

Top tips for turning agile objections into management incentives

It’s adaptable, nimble and efficient. So why isn’t every company embracing agile methodology for software development? As it turns out, the No. 1 barrier to agile adoption is corporate resistance to change.

Let’s face it, change isn’t easy. And getting decision makers on board to make such a shift in workflow and collaboration can be a challenge. For that reason, too many companies that could be benefiting from agile are not. And the larger the company, the more difficult it can be to get the management support that you need.

Just five short years ago, it was small businesses that drove the agile trend. It’s easy to understand why. Not only did those small companies have the most to gain in terms of getting their software to market faster, but they didn’t have the layers of management red tape to fight through to get agile practice approved.

So how can you convince your decision makers to make the move to agile? Following are three tips for turning agile objections into management incentives for driving your business toward agile.

Objection #1: Not enough up-front planning

Business requirements can turn on a dime. And when business needs change, so too must your software requirements. Too much up-front planning burns through time and resources and can lock you into a fixed path that doesn’t result in good development outcomes. With agile development, requirements are established at the beginning of the process, but there is flexibility to make changes after each iteration. This ensures that development is always aligned to the bottom line of the business regardless of how that shifts.

Objection #2: Not enough management control

With agile developers empowered to make decisions about their tasks, management needs to get less involved in day-to-day decision making that can ultimately slow progress and cause lags in development momentum that can cost time and money. With agile development, product owners work with cross-functional teams to prioritize tasks and timelines based on requirements. Work is performed in fixed increments that are deadline driven to ensure software delivery on schedule. And a transparent process and open lines of communication keep stakeholders in the know every step of the way.

Objection #3: Not enough documentation

Agile development favors working software over comprehensive documentation. Why? Because working software—not documentation—adds value to the business. That doesn’t mean there’s no documentation in agile development. But agile developers are trained to capture and document high-value information that’s most important to the business. By doing so, less time can be spent on documentation and more time is invested in revenue-generating software delivery.

Explore the benefits of Shinetech for agile development that will satisfy your stakeholder’s desire for predictability and success.