In this presentation filmed during Agile 2008, Michael Mah analyzes the development process in 5 companies: 2 Agile (one of them BMC) and 3 classic. He measures the development productivity and effectiveness and compares the results with industry averages. He also presents the factors which contributed to the success of BMC's Agile adoption.
Watch: Measuring Agile in the Enterprise: 5 Success Factors for Large-Scale Agile Adoption (1h 26min)
Michael compares 5 companies, 2 implementing Agile, one XP and one Scrum, and other 3 implementing classic processes. He uses specific metrics to measure the productivity and success of their software development, and compares the results against industry averages.
Michael's measurements show that the companies doing Agile performed better, being faster to market and with lower defect rates. One of the companies is BMC, and their success is comprised in the following "secret sauce", as Michael calls it:
- Buy-In
- VP-Level (or higher) Senior Executive Sponsorship
- Scrum Master Training
- Core Group Energized and Passionate
- Staying “Releasable”
- Nightly Builds/Test
- 2-week Iteration Demos
- Frequent, Rigorous Peer Code Review
- Dusk-to-Dawn Teamwork
- Communication Techniques for Information Flow
- Wikis, Video-conferencing, Periodic On-Site Meetings
- Co-Located Release Planning
- Scrum of Scrum Meetings (US Time)
- Backlogs
- One Master Backlog AND Multiple Backlog Management
- One Setup for User Stories Across Teams
- Added “Requirements Architect” to Interface Product Mgt with R&D
- “Holding Back the Waterfall”
- Test Driven Development
- Retrospective Meetings to Not Regress into old Waterfall Habits
- Outside Source to Audit the Process
During the second part of the presentation, Michael invites Walter Bodwell, Senior Director of Engineering at BMC Software when the analyzed project was developed, to carry on a conversation with him about the above mentioned factors which contributed to the BMC's successful implementation of Agile. Walter explains the ingredients of the "secret sauce".