Agile adoption increasing within both IT and non-IT teams
Digital.ai released a report detailing notable trends and issues in Agile adoption and practice as identified by more than 1,380 global respondents. This year’s findings highlight a strong increase in Agile adoption within both IT and non-IT teams as well as a desire of most development and IT practitioners to work as part of a distributed workforce for the foreseeable future as the world continues to grapple with COVID-19.
“Since the report’s inception, the tendency was to frame trends as evidence of how IT must align with the business to create value, which was reflective of broader industry conversations. COVID-19 has been a watershed moment for all of us as it has validated IT leadership in determining what the future of work will look like,” said Richard Knaster, VP and chief scientist for Digital.ai.
“The accelerated Agile adoption trends in this year’s report show the path forward isn’t about IT aligning to the business, but IT being integral to the business and leading the way to business agility. Agile adoption and broader adoption of other strategies, including value stream management are no longer solely in the realm of IT. Business leaders realize these strategies, long responsible for success within IT departments create and optimize business value and can be measured using business-related outcomes, not just outputs.”
Agile adoption trends
1. Agile is no longer confined to development teams
In response to the pandemic’s impact on work, Agile methodologies, tools and processes saw a significant increase in adoption across the entire organization, with adoption by non-IT lines of business doubling since last year’s report, and adoption in software development teams increasing from 37% to 86%.
2. Scrum and SAFe remain popular
Scrum remains the most popular agile approach, with 66% of respondents identifying it as the methodology most closely followed with a further 15% following Scrum derivations, including ScrumBan (9%) and Scrum/XP (6%). Similarly, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) continues to be the most popular scalable framework, with almost 40% of respondents identifying it as the one they most closely follow.
3. DevOps investments are a priority
A full 74% of respondents state they either have a current DevOps initiative or are planning one, continuing the trend of steady growth in organizational recognition and adoption of DevOps solutions.
4. Value stream management (VSM) gains momentum
VSM continues to be an important focus, with more than half of respondents stating they have implemented or plan to implement VSM across their organization.
5. Distributed and hybrid workforces are here to stay
56% of respondents indicated they prefer a hybrid working arrangement that includes a mix of both office-based and remote work. In comparison, a full 25% say they will work remotely full time and permanently.