Learning Agile Implementation on the GO

The competition of businesses and innovation is a two-edge sword as it poses many challenges and opportunities for companies in all sectors. Scott Granier, from Tantus Technologies, decided to take the challenge of catching up with the trend of Agile methodologies without having a road-map in order to cater to Tantus' customers' demand. As a result, Tantus Technologies was able to solve their customers’ problems while transitioning their current waterfall methods into Agile by default.

The three most important changes that needed to happen in order to completely move into Agile were organizational, cultural, and personnel. First, as a matrixed organization with an output of 50 to 70 projects per year, building stable and dedicated cross-functional teams was crucial to foster cohesion and understanding of the product, methodology and coworkers. Next, with a culture of victories implementing waterfall methods, questions regarding project direction, scope focus, and allocation of time and resources were imperative to answer. Lastly, Tantus had been operating with a workforce who had little to no experience in Agile software development; the only strategies they could think of was to hire or to outsource.

After finding a willing participant to deliver Tantus’ first Agile project, Tantus implemented several solutions to solve their main problems and prepare their company for Agile execution:

• Selecting Scrum as their Agile framework
• Certify personnel as ScrumMasters
• Hire Scrum coach for an executive training session
• Train new customers to educate them about their role as product owners

These and many other tactics helped Tantus transition their organization, culture, and personnel into adopting Agile methods in their work environment and solutions for their customers. Based on Tantus’ experience, Scott mentioned the following key take-aways to keep in mind when a company is transitioning in Agile:

• Introduce change carefully
• Sprints increase learning and reduce risk
• Finding an empowered available product owner is crucial.
• Having a 100% dedicated staff is essential to reap the benefits of Agile.

According to Grainer, firms that do not adopt the Agile method will suffer from the fast pace of the existing competition. It is impressive that a company that was so rooted under the waterfall methods, with many successful projects under its belt, was still able to train their entire organization to change their execution strategy and thrive. I believe that the most important take away of this story is the importance of accepting change in order to evolve with the world around us. Change is part of our natural way of living, innovating, and progressing. Perhaps successful stories like these will impact people as much as it will impact companies to adopt acceptance to change as a core habit to live with.

Source: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/november/success-story-sometimes-it-just-may-take-a-waterfa