SPA Conference session: Experiences from Large-Scale Agile Adoptions: Balancing Delivery, Change & Cost of Ownership

One-line description:Experiences drawn from helping a number of large & diverse organisations adopt agile practices
 
Session format: Case Study (75 mins) [read about the different session types]
 
Abstract:Large-scale agile adoption poses many challenges to organisations. Early successes with small teams & tactical projects often stall when faced with the realities of applying new ways of working to strategic programmes of work; the A-players "get" agile quickly but the majority are often left trailing, with new agile practices inconsistently applied; new systems deliver the right stuff on time, but are they supportable within the existing application landscape? For agile to become "business as usual" or the de-facto approach for business/IT change initiatives, it is necessary to balance a number of aspects: scalable delivery, sustainable change, & supportable solutions.

In this session Ian Spence, consultant, published author, and long-time agile evangelist, will explore some of these challenges and how they were overcome in various diverse organisations, including banking, insurance and telecoms.
 
Audience background:This is an intermediate level session. Some basic understanding of agile methods, and the differences between it & "traditional" methods will be assumed.
 
Benefits of participating:Attendees will get the benefit of understanding the challenges to implementing agile within large organisations and how these challenges may be overcome.
 
Materials provided:This will be mainly presentation followed by discussion, so slide materials will be used & can be made available (electronically) to the attendees afterwards.
 
Process:This will be mainly a presentation, but some Q&A and discussion time will be built into the schedule as we believe this makes for a more interesting session.
 
Detailed timetable:45 mins: presentation
30 mins: Q&A and discussion
 
Outputs:Slide materials (based on case studies) will used & can be made available (electronically) to the attendees afterwards.
 
History:This session was delivered as an evening talk at the BCS in London in December 2012.
 
Presenters
1. Andy Mutton
Ivar Jacobson International
2. Ian Spence 3.