The Good, the Better, and the Rather Puzzling: The Agile Experience at Five Companies

Strategic software development is happening every day-and failures continue to plague us. Unquestionably, a major paradigm shift is underway with the movement to agile methods. But are they really working? With results drawn from industry statistics, Michael Mah answers vital questions about the effectiveness of agile methodologies-XP, Scrum, TDD, pair programming, etc. One discovery underway is that agile methods could be turning the "law of software physics" upside down. For decades, there have been predictable relationships among schedule pressure, staff ramp-up, and bug rates; now, industry data tells us that all this could be changing with agile. Join Michael Mah for a revealing discussion of productivity findings at five-all ostensibly agile-companies, and how they produced a range of results for time-to-market, productivity, and quality. Michael addresses questions such as: Which agile practices are right for your environment? What are the characteristics of a successful agile deployment? How do you measure success or failure of agile process change? Find out how the five case study companies "did" agile in their own ways and how their metrics reveal insights into new agile approaches that are fast becoming mainstream.