Forrester - 2015 State of Agile Development Report

The 2015 State Of Agile
Development
Forrester Research
Authors: Diego Lo Giudice
August 3, 2015
Why read this report

Agile development is high on every BT agenda, but many still struggle to be
truly Agile and achieve the real benefits beyond a single teams experience.
This 2015 online survey, contrary to many existing surveys in the market that
survey Agile and non-Agile practitioners, focuses on understanding the
strategies being adopted by 215 Agile practitioners from around the world.
The survey primarily illustrates:

What the benefits are, how success is measured, and which Agile practices
are adopted.
Which Agile methods they prefer and use both upstream and downstream of
the application delivery-cycle process.
How they deal with large enterprise scale issues and what the most common
barriers are.
How teams organize and with which core and extended roles.
What Agile testing strategies they adopt.
2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Agenda
Demographics
Agile practices and organization
Agile testing and outsourcing
Measuring Agile value
Methodology and related research
215 respondents, 68% responding on behalf of their team, division,

and enterprise
Which of the following best describes the scope of your management authority?
(Select one)
I am responding on behalf of my team only
27%
I am responding on behalf of more teams

(departmental/divisional level)
33%
I am responding for the entire technology

management organization (global level)
Other
28%
12%
Sixty-one percent use Agile in

multiple teams at the departmental
and enterprise levels.
Base: 215 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices

Source: Forrester's Q2 2015 Global Agile Software Application Development Online Survey
Primary group of respondents are executives: 69% of respondents

are VPs or managers; 8% are transformation leaders
What is your primary role? (Select one)

24%
Mid-level manager (e.g., Manager, Director, etc.)
21%
Vice-president or C-level executive
Program manager
8%
Transformation or change leader
8%
7%
Chief architect
6%
Development manager
5%
Product manager
3%
Business analyst
Software quality assurance manager (including
testers)
DevOps manager
Portfolio manager
Deployment or Operations (e.g., sysadmin, DBA,
deployment manager)
Other (please specify)
Directors/managers: 48%
VPs/other execs: 21%
Deployment/ops: 1%
QA/testers: 2%
2%
2%
1%
1%
13%
Base: 190 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.

In line with previous years, IT/BT industry participation

leads. This year, 25% come from financial services or
insurance; 6% from retail and wholesale
Which of the following best describes the industry to which your company
belongs? (Select one)
IT/BT professional services (System integration,
outsourcing, consultancy, web agency)
27%
18%
Software products (ISV, SW Vendor)
16%
Financial Services
9%
Insurance
8%
Public sector and healthcare
6%
Retail and wholesale
5%
Utilities and telecommunications

Manufacturing
3%
Media, entertainment, and leisure
3%
Business services and construction

Other
2%
Agile survey
2015
2013
2011
Tech
industry
45%
34%
37%
IT/BT end
users
47%
58%
49%
Government
8%
8%
8%
3%

More than 50% of respondents are from very large or large

enterprises. However, smaller shops have higher adoption of Agile
than the larger enterprises.
Using your best estimate, how many employees work for your company worldwide?
(select one)
20,000 or more
30%
Between 5,000 - 19,999
23%
Between 1,000 - 4,999

Between 500 - 999
Between 250 - 499
Between 100 - 249
Less than 100
22%
3%
7%
7%
7%
Respondents from
small enterprises*
(those with fewer than
1,000 employees) lead
Agile adoption. Sixtyfive percent of people
from this group report
having 100% of
development teams
using Agile.
Base: 149 (*37 from small enterprises) professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.
The bulk (36%) have between 11 and 49 developers as

internal staff; 14% have between 50 and 99; and 21%
have between 100 and 499
What is your estimate of the number of developers that are part of your internal and
external staff? (select one for internal, and one for external)
1-10
11-49
External staff
Internal staff
50-99
29%
7%
100-499
500-999
29%
36%
1,000 - 4,999
10%
14%
21%
17%
6%
5,000 or more
4% 7% 4%
9%
7%
Base: 184 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices

Agile is pervasive across all types of businesses and

development organizations. Respondents are from both
centralized IT/BT as well as from divisional teams.
What kind of software development is your organization primarily responsible for?
(Check all that apply select one if you are representing only one team)
Custom software (services or system integration
company)
Delivering software products for development,
platform/middleware or deployment tools
Central IT App dev team for custom application
development
46%
45%
43%
42%
Central IT for internal applications

Departmental IT or App dev team for custom
application development
Delivering software products for desktop, content
management, collaboration tools
Central IT app dev team for mobile applications
development
Departmental IT or app dev team for mobile
applications development
36%
36%
29%
25%
24%
Departmental IT for internal applications

PLM or embedded software/systems engineering
(business/government)
PLM or embedded software/systems engineering
(consumer)
Console games
9%
8%
2%
Agile is used by software

vendor product groups, custom
application development groups
that develop mobile and web
apps, and by packaged
application development teams
(e.g., SAP).

We received responses from all over the globe.

Geography: Americas 55%, Europe 26%, APAC
15%, Other 4%.
In which region or country do you work?
(select one)
52%
North America
25%
Western Europe
15%
Asia Pacific
South America
Eastern Europe
Other
3%
1%
4%

10
What It Means
Demographics
All types of businesses have responded to the survey: large system

integrators and consulting organizations, software product vendors, and IT/BT
organizations of end users coming from various industries.
Although the bulk of respondents are from the US, almost half come from the
rest of the world, making it a global online survey.
With 25% coming from financial services or insurance, further data cuts and
considerations can be made on the Agile adoption trends for this industry. If
you are interested and a Forrester client, check with your account manager.
Respondents are mostly IT/BT executives.
11
Agenda
Demographics

Distributed Agile teams are the norm. Only 10% have

fully collocated teams
To what extent is your primary team geographically distributed?
(Select one)
All team members are in the same location
Seventy-one percent,
the majority, keep more
than half of the team in
the same place.
10%
15%
90% to 99% of the team is in the same location
21%
25%
18%
Less than 25% of the team is in the same location
10%

13
The proportion of professionals with four or more years

of Agile adoption at their firms has increased
significantly
How long have Agile practices been in use in your organization? (select one)
5%
Less than six months
2015
12%
15%
2013*
2011**
More than six months, but less than an a year
11%
15%
22%
22%
More than a year, but less than two years
28%
20%
More than two years, but less than three years
More than three years, but less than four years
15%
17%
18%
8%
10%
10%
Forty percent have been

doing Agile for more than
four years and are likely
to be beyond large scale
adoption.
Thirty-eight percent have
been doing Agile for less
than two years and most
likely still need to scale.
40%
Four or more years
18%
14%
Base: 184, *149 and **205 professions with knowledge of their firms Agile techniques.
14
Over half of respondents have scaled the use of Agile to

more than 50% of teams, and 24% have 100% adoption.
Roughly what percent of development teams in your organization are using Agile
practices? (select one)
23%
Under 25%
40%
20%
21%
17%
Between 25% and 49%
Between 50% and 74%
Between 75% and 99%
100%
15%
12%
13%
11%
12%
11%
45%
2015
2013*
2011**
18%
24%
19%
Base: 182 , *149 and **205 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile techniques.
15
Fifty-five percent of respondents have between 50% and

100% of teams using Agile to a satisfactory level
And among those using Agile practices, what percent are using those practices to a
satisfactory level? (select one)
24%
Under 25%
Between 26% and 49%
22%
Between 50% and 74%
22%
20%
Between 75% and 99%
100%
13%

16
Many teams are leveraging core Agile practices. 20% are

leveraging Agile from ideation to deployment (including
DevOps). Interestingly, 51% use Agile in upstream.
Which core Agile practices do you apply? (Check all that apply)
Short iterations (between 2-4 weeks)
86%
Daily Scrum meetings
84%
Story-based requirements
84%
Product Owner
80%
Early and frequent feedback
78%
Scrum Master
76%
Use Burndown or burn-up boards (prioritized list)
68%
Up front planning initial estimate (dev&testing, sprint 0)
64%
Continuous Integration
58%
Continuous Delivery
58%
Up front requirements (sprint 0)
56%
Refactoring
50%
Up front architecture (sprint 0)
47%
User acceptance test-driven development
47%
Test-driven development
Behavior-driven development
Other
39%
16%
10%
Agile upstream (51% of

respondents do all of the
following):
Short iterations
Daily scrum meetings
Product owner
Early and frequent
feedback
Burn-down/burn-up
Agile downstream (24% of
respondents do all of the
following):
Continuous integration
Continuous delivery
Test-driven
development
Agile upstream and
downstream (15% of
respondents do all
upstream and downstream
activities)

17
Only 13% adhere to only one Agile methodology. Most

use a mix of Agile methods, which is a rising trend.
How would you describe your adherence to a particular Agile methodology?)
(select one)
13%
We adhere to one particular Agile methodology as

closely as we can.
25%
17%
54%
We use a mix of Agile methodologies
44%
31%
27%
24%
We deliberately mix Agile and non-Agile techniques
39%
Twenty-seven percent are mixing

Agile with non-Agile methodologies.
This is not necessarily a bad thing
when done right! We call this WaterAgile-Fall.
Other
6%
7%
13%
2015
2013*
2011**
Base: 175, *149, and **205 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile techniques.
18
Scrum leads, but Kanban and DevOps adoption is also

quite widespread with 57% and 50% use, respectively
Which of the following methods do you partially or wholly apply? (Check all that
apply)
Scrum
Iterative
Kanban
DevOps
Lean
Hybrid Waterfall and Agile (WaterScrumFall)
Test-Driven Development (TDD, test cases are implemented first
Waterfall
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Extreme Programming (XP)
Feature-Driven Development (FDD)
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
Lean Startup
Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
Rational Unified Process (RUP)
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)
Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) For Agile
Spiral
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
Other derivative of the Unified Process (AUP, OUP, etc.)
86%
57%
57%
50%
49%
35%
35%
35%
33%
29%
23%
20%
20%
17%
12%
8%
6%
6%
5%
5%
XP is still under considered,

although continuous
integration, XPs most popular
practice, ranked 58% among all
Agile practices adopted.
Enterprise Agile practices are
also making in roads: WaterAgile-Fall (done right) and SAFe
(which seems to enjoy fast
growth).

19
Behavioral change is the biggest barrier to adoption;

properly skilled business product owners are also a big
impediment for Agile adoption success.
Which of the following are barriers to your organizations Agile adoption? (check all
that apply)
59%
People behavioral change
49%
Lack of skilled Product Owners from the business
40%
Lack of dedicated cross functional teams
Lack of Agile skills in project management practices, backlog

grooming, planning, requirements, architecture, etc.
39%
Lack of Product Owners commitment from the business
38%
Scaling Agile at the enterprise by replicating success throughout

the organization to more teams
38%
Lack of Agile skills in downstream or DevOps
37%
Lack of Agile testing skills
36%
Lack of automation tools and/or infrastructure
36%
Lack of Agile executive leadership
36%
Organizations are
finally realizing
that the lack of
cross-functional
teams is one of the
top impediments
for successful
Agile adoption.
A lack of proper
executive
leadership is also
an important
impediment.

20
Agile development is recognized as most important for

mobile, software products, and website development
For which of the following areas is Agile development important? (check one)
While mobile is
considered most
important, its not the
top area where Agile
is practiced. This may
be because:
Mobile development
94%
Product development
93%
Website development
93%
1. Mobile
development might
Employee applications for serving customers
have even shorter
cycles and smaller
API development
teams, making
people identify
Application integration
themselves as not
sticking to any
Architecture implementation (e.g., ESB, SOA)
method.
2. Or responding on
Employee applications for back end systems
backend (SoR)
which might not be
done in Agile.
88%
85%
80%
77%
69%
Base: Between 137 and 161 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices (each row has a unique sample
size within this range.)
21
Two-thirds have a business product owner. Testers are

now peers to developers and first-class citizens of Agile
teams (a good sign).
Whos on a typical team using Agile practices? (Select all that apply)
87%
Front-end developers
However, some double

down on the business
product owner with an
IT/BT product owner
(these might be either
playing the role of the BA
or are SIs POs in Agile
outsourcing).
84%
Scrum master
82%
Tester
76%
Back-end developer
67%
Product owner from Business
59%
Architect
Product owner from IT/BT
49%
Project manager
48%
46%
UX design professional
44%
Designer
Other
7%

22
What It Means
Just over half of respondents show an expert or mature adoption pattern. This group
has between 50% and 100% of the teams practicing Agile development to satisfactory
levels. These teams:
Know when to use certain Agile practices and how to mix various methods. Scrum
is still the top Agile method for project management, followed by Kanban. DevOps
has made inroads too, and since 2013, a newcomer, the SAFe framework for
enterprise Agile adoption, has also made important strides.
Integrate Agile development with waterfall practices in an overall enterprise

governance framework. When done well, Forrester calls this Water-Agile-Fall.
Done well means upfront planning and an understanding of very high-level
product requirements (water), then sprints kick off with further user stories of
refinement, design, development, testing, and integration (Agile), and, lastly,
release packaging and deployment (fall).
Organize in cross-functional product (value stream) teams with core roles such as
product owners, scrum masters/Agile coaches, testers, and developers. These
work exclusively on one product or value stream at a time. Additional members
might extend the core team on call, such as architects, UX designers, business
analysts, and operations managers.
23
What It Means (cont.)

Main impediments to scaling Agile successfully:
Lack of strong leadership.

No business product owner or a lack of skilled business product owners.
No cross-functional or integrated end-to-end teams; people not dedicated to
one product/project/stream of work at a time.
24
Agenda
Demographics
Most testers are allocated fulltime to project teams. It is

not clear if they are most likely to work on one project at
a time, which would be highly desirable.
Which of the following statements are true about your testing organization
structure? (Check all that apply)
61%
Testers are allocated full time to project teams
57%
Testers are members of an integrated delivery team
41%
Performance and Load testers are centralized

We have a Testing Practice Center of Excellence with
specialized skills
36%
35%
Performance and Load testers are in project teams

Testers belong to a Testing Center of Excellence
(TCoE) where testing is managed and executed
29%
Automation architects are shared across projects
28%
18%
Testing is managed and executed in the TCoE

Other
Don't know
6%
4%
Testing center of excellence (TCOE)

breakdown, as Forrester predicted
in 2013, is a growing reality.
Performance and load testing
activities are also moving in
projects. This confirms performance
testing is also shifting to the left.

26
Manual testing prevails and unit testing follows. UAT

done early in sprints enjoys significant adoption
How frequently do you use the following testing practices? (select one)
Always
Manual Testing
Automation
enjoys growing
adoption for
both functional
regression and
nonregression
tests
49%
Unit Testing
29%
Functional Regression Tests Automation
38%
21%
Exploratory Testing
33%
14%
Test Data Management Production Data Sub-setting, etc.
29%
11%
Test Data Management Masking, Obfuscation
31%
13%
19%
6%
TDD
BDD3%
19%
8%
Service Virtualization Testing 5%
25%
38%
28%
Functional Test Automation
Test Data Management Synthetic Generation
33%
53%
User Acceptance Testing In Sprints
Service
virtualization,
TDD, and BDD
are still far from
where they need
to be.
Usually
16%
14%
11%

27
Agile teams do more functional than non-functional test

automation. GUI and non-GUI automation still coexist.
Levels of test automation are starting to increase.
Using your best estimate, how much do you automate the following?
% Automation
(mean across responses)
Unit tests
53%
Functional tests (GUI)
45%
Functional tests (Beyond GUI, e.g., APIs)
42%
We implement continuous testing tests are kicked off at each

code check in and integration (CI)
42%
We automate nonfunctional (performance)
38%
We automate nonfunctional (integration)
35%
We automate test environment provisioning
30%

28
Few claim they use SIs on Agile projects successfully;

24% dont use SIs because they develop only with
internal resources
I have no barriers for using system
integrators on my Agile projects
and I'm using them successfully.
Which of the following are barriers for

using system integrators on your Agile
projects? (Check all that apply)
I develop only with my internal
resources
24%
My current contractual aspects

and SLAs make it hard to use
Agile
TRUE
23%
17%
I dont feel SIs have sufficient skills
FALSE
77%
12%
I dont trust industry contracting

practices are mature enough
8%
I dont care what development

method my SI uses; I just buy the
output as a managed service
8%
Other
9%

29
What It Means
Although Agile testing has matured overall, its still the biggest impediment for
teams to truly develop applications with speed and quality because:
The testing center of excellence, as we know it, is a concept of the past. Its
becoming a federated practice testing center of excellence, rather than a
highly centralized testing execution shared service.
The majority are including testers in development teams.
TDD, BDD, and other modern testing practices, such as service
virtualization for integration testing, are still lagging.
Levels of test automation seem to have improved from as low as 10% in the
past years to between 30% to 53%. While a great improvement, in any case
it is still too low to not compromise agility.
When doing Agile, many still rely on internal resources. The biggest
impediment to Agile outsourcing is still in old vendor governance practices and
waterfall contracts, and there is still some mistrust in true SI Agile expertise.
30
Agenda
Demographics
The top expected benefits are usually achieved but with

small gaps
What are the benefits expected by
your business for using Agile?
(select all that apply)
What are the benefits achieved/realized

by your business for using Agile?
(select all that apply)
Better business/IT alignment
83%
Better business/IT alignment
72%
Faster delivery of solutions
79%
More opportunities for midcourse corrections
71%
69%
75%
Improved functional quality
70%
Increased team
motivation/morale
60%
Greater predictability of results

aligned with requirements
68%
Improved functional quality
60%
Greater frequency of releases
67%
Greater predictability of releases
58%
58%
Increased team
motivation/morale
63%
Greater frequency of releases
Greater predictability of
releases
63%
Greater predictability of results

aligned with requirements
Improved technical quality
58%
Improved technical quality
Continuous delivery
57%
Continuous Delivery
Lower maintenance costs
40%
Lower maintenance costs
54%
46%
36%
25%

32
Productivity and quality are the top metrics that Agile

teams use; business value closely follows.
How do you measure the value of Agile? (Check all that apply)
57%
User stories completed
Velocity
56%
Quality
56%
49%
Business value
45%
Features completed
Increased perceived value of software delivered
37%
Cycle time
37%
33%
Increased predictability of planned releases
23%
Function points completed
22%
Completed tests at each sprint/iterations
15%
Decreased mean time to repair
13%
Data analytics generated during the development & delivery process
9%
Decreased technical debt
Other metrics
3%

33
Quality, velocity, and business value can be measured in

a variety of ways
How do you measure the value of Agile? (check all that apply)
Quality
Reduction of number
of defects in
production
Increase in the
stability of deployed
sprints/iterations
Velocity
50%
32%
Increase in the
number of user
story points
Increase in the
number of features
of backlog
Growth of planned
features in backlog
over time
Business value
43%
23%
As measured by
increased
user/customer
satisfaction
As measured by
sales increase,
client retention,
% of revenue
increase over
period of time, or
end user
40%
32%
18%

34
Story points are by far the primary unit of measuring

size; t-shirt size follows in popularity
Q24: How do you size epics, themes, and your product backlog?
(Check all that apply)
65%
Story points
49%
Sizes (e.g., XL, L, M, S, XS)
45%
User stories
Sizing in terms of hours of work

is no longer the primary sizing
technique
35%
Hours of work
23%
Features
12%
Function points
Lines of code
4%
Other
4%

35
What It Means
Benefits and measuring agile value
The top three expected and achieved benefits of becoming Agile are the same
with small gaps between the two:
Better business and IT alignment
The top three metrics used by Agile teams are:

User stories completed
Velocity
Quality
However, among Agile expert teams, another top metric is predictability. They
still need to prove when a release will happen and what is being delivered.
Business value is getting closer to the top three metrics.
The most common sizing technique is story points with poker planning and
Fibonacci.
36
Agenda
Demographics
Survey and data methodology

Name of survey: Forrester's Q2 2015 Global Agile Software Application
Development Online Survey
Survey sample size: 215 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile
practices. Exact sample sizes are displayed for each question.
Methodology: Forrester fielded the survey during April and May 2015.
Respondent incentives included a summary of the survey results.
38
Thank you to the following vendors who helped us

socialize our survey
CI&T
Magenic
Cigniti
Parasoft
Cognizant
CollabNet
Rally Software Development

Corporation
IGate Global Solutions
Softek Solutions
Imola Informatica
Software Development Experts
IBM
Tata Consultancy Services
Interactive Intelligence
Tech Mahindra
L&T Infotech
Wipro
39
Want to know more?

See more research from the author, Diego Lo Giudice.
http://www.forrester.com/home#/Diego-Lo-Giudice
Access The Modern Application Delivery Playbook For 2015.
https://www.forrester.com/The+Modern+Application+Delivery+Playbook+For+2
015/-/E-PLA750?objectid=PLA750
Please give us feedback on this report.
http://www.forrester.com/forr/reg/contact.jsp?id=38
40
Selected Forrester Research

The 2015 State Of Agile Development: Learn From Agile Expert Firms
Forrester report
Five Must-Do's For Testing Quality At Speed Forrester report
Overcoming Barriers To Modern Application Delivery Forrester report
41
Thank you
42

Forrester - 2015 State of Agile Development Report

Cargado por

Información del documento

Título original

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

Forrester - 2015 State of Agile Development Report

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

The 2015 State Of Agile

Why read this report

The survey primarily illustrates:

2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

215 respondents, 68% responding on behalf of their team, division,

I am responding on behalf of my team only

I am responding on behalf of more teams

I am responding for the entire technology

Sixty-one percent use Agile in

Base: 215 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices

Primary group of respondents are executives: 69% of respondents

What is your primary role? (Select one)

Mid-level manager (e.g., Manager, Director, etc.)

Vice-president or C-level executive

Transformation or change leader

Base: 190 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.

In line with previous years, IT/BT industry participation

Software products (ISV, SW Vendor)

Public sector and healthcare

Retail and wholesale

Utilities and telecommunications

Media, entertainment, and leisure

Business services and construction

Base: 149 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.

More than 50% of respondents are from very large or large

Between 5,000 - 19,999

Between 1,000 - 4,999

Less than 100

The bulk (36%) have between 11 and 49 developers as

Base: 184 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices

Agile is pervasive across all types of businesses and

Central IT for internal applications

Departmental IT for internal applications

Agile is used by software

Base: 191 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.

We received responses from all over the globe.

Base: 149 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.

All types of businesses have responded to the survey: large system

2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Agile practices and organization

2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Distributed Agile teams are the norm. Only 10% have

90% to 99% of the team is in the same location

75% to 89% of the team is in the same location

50% to 74% of the team is in the same location

25% to 49% of the team is in the same location

Less than 25% of the team is in the same location

Base: 184 professionals with knowledge of their firms Agile practices.

The proportion of professionals with four or more years

More than six months, but less than an a year

More than a year, but less than two years

More than two years, but less than three years

More than three years, but less than four years

Forty percent have been

Four or more years

Over half of respondents have scaled the use of Agile to

Between 25% and 49%

Between 50% and 74%

Between 75% and 99%

Fifty-five percent of respondents have between 50% and

Between 26% and 49%

Between 50% and 74%