On the surface, a Broadway musical, a newspaper, and software may not seem to have much—if anything—in common, but they have one common thread. All are delivered on a fixed schedule. But of the three, software tends to stray the most from the fixed schedule. In this week's column, Jeff Patton says that by focusing on the readiness of the entire product—as done in theatrical performances and when publishing a newspaper—and not just on the completion of the planned bits of work, you can produce software on a fixed schedule that you know is ready to ship.

If Agile is going to make a difference to an organization, it must accomplish two things. First, it must assist us in being driven by business needs—not the development organization. Second, it must help us with the entire value stream—not merely part of it. Lean-agile practices presents us with an opportunity to reunite the business and software development organizations so our Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) can focus on value, not merely delivered software.

In a Forrester’s report, The Changing Face Of Application Life-Cycle Management, nearly one-third of enterprises are already using application lifecycle management (ALM) processes and tools, and almost half are aware of it But in conversations with user companies, we find that even those familiar with the term are often hard-pressed to define it.

Agile DC - Washington DC's regional agile conference - Bob Payne