How do larger companies with lots and lots of teams scale? If you have too many people with too many moving targets not aligned in their outcomes, your product is at risk. In the past, companies found their processes getting slower and slower as their product became more complex, and at the same time, methodologies inside software development were changing fast. The birth of the Agile Manifesto meant a different approach to production that was more about doing than spending too much time thinking, writing, or documenting in an effort to beat the clock on change and get your product out correctly on the first release. In today's episode, we follow on from our discussion in a previous episode on Stage-Gate® to discuss Agile Methodology. I discuss how this has become the successor in the software world to the Waterfall approach and how Agile has almost eliminated project failure chances. I discuss how Agile allows for continual adjustment and feedback to perfect the product. I also explain Agiles position within digital software teams and the digital products that are out there and how it coordinates very large, massive engagements with lots of teams building a product or set of products to market.
"Theoretically, if you were doing agile well, you could stop after any sprint and have something that could be released to the market." – Paul Heller
"You have these alignment meetings, these system demos, where the teams of teams come back together and demonstrate what they built and show how that they're all working together." – Paul Heller
"It is a whole methodology oriented towards digital software teams, the digital products that are out there and coordinating very large, massive engagements with lots of teams trying to build a product or a set of products to market." – Paul Heller
"What the larger companies found is when we have lots and lots of teams, it doesn't scale very well. We have too many people. Too many moving targets. They're not all aligned." – Paul Heller
"The Agile methodology. Lots of components to it. But the heart of it is a team that's working in a cadence, and the cadence is often called a Sprint." – Paul Heller
This week on Innovative Talks:
- How the 'Waterfall Approach' works product development chains
- Why processes slow up as your product becomes more complex
- Why you need to be adaptable and open to change in development
- The heart of Agile methodology
- Why a demonstration of a prototype is critical for feedback
- The elements of a scaled agile framework
- Getting the product better, not faster
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