When the Stars are Aligned use Agile
Conclusion: The high-risk and high-reward Agile approach for systems development enabled many organisations to respond quickly to changing management strategies and yielded significant productivity benefits, according to a 2015 survey1.
However the same survey found not everyone has been so successful, as lack of experience in using the Agile approach, and organisation resistance to change, have frustrated almost the same number of organisations.
Once IT and business management have decided that Agile is the right approach they must:
- Champion and defend its use
- Actively track progress and allocate extra resources to the project if justified
- Provide a safe environment in which a retrospective review can be conducted
- Widely disseminate the lessons learned from the review, including strategies that succeeded and failed, without attributing blame

About The Advisor
Alan Hansell
Alan Hansell is an IBRS advisor who focuses on IT and business management. Alan is able to critique and comment on IT and business management trends, ways to justify and maximise the benefits from IT-related investment, IS management development and the role of the CIO. Alan has extensive experience in IT management, consulting and advising senior managers in matters related to IT investment. He was a Director in Gartner's Executive program and adviser to over 50 CIOs and business managers and before joining Gartner a consultant with DMR Group. He also worked as an IS professional, manager and industry consultant for IBM for nearly 30 years. Alan is a CPA and Associate of Governance Institute of Australia.