Hey, Isaac,
I see this happening more and more. Agile has become so popular that large scale adopters are exerting pressure on their suppliers to “go agile” – even before they fully understand what they are asking for. In my opinion, the best approach is one we’ve coined “Agile Resiliency,” which uses the architectural rigor of CMMI to strengthen agile. Strengthening agile will help us when our customers, who are decidedly not agile, start pushing us around and telling us we need to behave more like they do.
Why are customers pushing us around?
We have an old saying in the automotive industry, where I’ve been working for 30 years: “Suppliers don’t change General Motors, General Motors changes suppliers.” The same problem happens when working with other large organizations that have made the strategic decision to start running their projects using agile methods. As a supplier, you can have all the best intentions and the right way of going about things, but these large new adopters have tremendous weight and momentum behind what they are doing, and you will eventually get changed. Not because they don’t want to be agile, but because they are NOT agile.
What can we do about it?
One thing we can do is get informed. If you can make it to the Washington, DC area on Tuesday, December 9th, at 6:30PM, I am giving a LIVE presentation that will help you. The talk, “Agile Resiliency: How CMMI Will Make Agile Thrive and Survive,” is hosted by the Agile Leadership Network of the Washington, DC metro area.
Click HERE to register:
Attendees are sure to learn a lot of useful information to put in practice right away. Over the course of two hours, I will show you how integrating the architectural strengths of the CMMI with your agile approach can help you make agile resilient enough to resist the pressure to change – and even scale and thrive.
Join us and our hosts on December 9th.
Register here for the Live Presentation on Agile Resiliency.
Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!
Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.
Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about engineering strategy, performance innovation , software process improvement and running a successful CMMI program.
To download eBooks about CMMI, visit Jeff’s Author Page on Amazon.
