Status Quo Agile 2016/17


Status Quo Agile - Third study on success and forms of usage of agile methods

In cooperation with Scrum.org and GPM, Member of the International Project Management Association (IPMA)


Study results of "Status Quo Agile (2016/17)

  • The success rate of agile methods is still much more positive than that of classical project management.
  • Once again consistently agile users had the highest rate of success. - also in comparison to hybrid or selective users.
  • Agile methods continue to be used primarily in software development, but already 40% and 34% of participants use agile methods for "only" IT-related or non-IT activities. (Several answers were possible)
  • About 39% stated that he is supported by a traditional project manager or even acts like a traditional project manager.
  • Only a very small portion (< 5%) of the participants see lower quality or a lack of discipline as a result of agile methods. This assessment is also shared by the users of classic project management (7%).
  • The evaluation of the success of agile methods is still very positive, but slightly less "enthusiastic" than in previous surveys.
  • Only 7% of the respondents state that agile methods do not lead to an improvement in results and efficiency.
  • With 85%, the most used method is Scrum. Kanban, Lean and DevOps follow.
  • Almost three fifths of the respondents stated, that they use a 2-week Sprint cycle
  • 72% of the users of agile methods stated that change is an integral part of the company policy. Only 50% of the users of classic project management stated the same.
  • The top 3 reasons to work with agile methods are improving time to market, improving quality and reducing project risk.
  • The majority of users of agile methods use them selectively or in combination.
  • 91% see the improvements as (very much) higher than the effort needed to introduce agile methods.
  • A size of 5-9 persons clearly dominates in agile teams.
  • 69% of the Kanban teams have a product owner.
  • Product Owner Shadow and Scrum Master Shadow are not uncommon. Proxy Product Owners are widespread (> 50%).
  • Only one third of the participants has substantial reasons to not use agile methods – e.g. effort too high or too expensive. One third is planning to deal with the topic. One third is missing the basic knowledge about agile methods.

Motivation for the implementation of the 3rd international study "Status Quo agile"

Agile methods such as Scrum, IT-Kanban or Design Thinking gained a lot of importance during recent years. It seems like almost every renowned company switched to the usage of agile methods for their IT development. During the last few years agile methods gained tremendous importance in areas like product development, process optimization, implementation of ERP systems Standard Software System (SSW), etc.

 

But how successful and widespread are agile methods? Which forms of usage are common? During the second half of the year of 2014 “Status Quo Agile“ examined for the third time the actual status quo of agile methods.

Questions to be examined by the study "Status Quo Agile" are:

  • How are agile methods like Scrum and IT-Kanban used in practice?
  • Which challenges promotes a succesful implementation of agile methods?
  • How do users combine classic project management with agile methods?
  • How can agile methods be scaled?
  • How successful are agile methods?
  • How are agile methods going to be entered in the project portfolio of the management?

The new edition of ”Status Quo Agile” examined how the usage of agile methods have changed. Special focus is placed on the actual forms of usage, the successes and the interaction with classic project management and scaling of agile methods as well.

 

A total of over 1,000 people from over 30 countries took part. More details on the structure of the participant survey period, used tools etc are documented in the final report. The Status Quo agile 2016/2017 study is already the third international survey according to previous studies in 2012 and 2014.

 

Study was carried out in collaboration with the GPM - German Association for project management, IPMA – International Project Management Association and Scrum.org.

The BPM Laboratory at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences

The BPM-Laboratory for Business Process Management and Organizational Excellence at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences is headed by Prof. Dr. Ayelt Komus. He is a Certified Scrum Master,  author of many well-known publications to agile method, agile PMO and initiator of many scientific studies in this field. Komus is co-founder of the model factory Koblenz and for more than 20 years in publisher of "BPM Best Practice" (Springer Verlag), and he has been active in the areas Business Process Management, project management, organizational design, IT management and agile methods.

Contact

For further information please contact the BPM-laboratory info.

Thank you very much for supporting the realization of this survey to Prowareness and Heupel Consultants.