Agile 2005 : Agile in Capital Markets
David Chapman and I held an Open Space session today, Wednesday 27th of July at the Agile 2005 Conference. We wanted to discuss issues and resolutions to bringing Agile to Capital Markets, a key issue we had and wanted to get traction on was, ‘how do you sell the Agile approach to an organization that is predominantly waterfall’, and ‘how do you sell Agile when the client is looking for Fixed Price & Fixed Scope contracts’
We expected no one to show up to our Open Space, as we have heard nothing relating to the Finance industry at all so far during this conference. We where pleasantly surprised when a single person showed up to discuss the topic with us, the individual was from Algorithmics, currently starting to roll out Agile techniques on his projects.
In Summary, there are no easy solutions to the two main questions;
Q: How do you sell the Agile approach to an organization that is predominantly waterfall?
A: You need to pick your battles carefully and identify a project that has minimal risk to the client, and that has a reasonable price point, i.e. keep the cost low. To do this you need to know your client well, so that these opportunities can be spotted and discussed with the client. Bottom Line is that results sell, so if you successfully deliver an Agile project, then the next one will be easier to sell.
Q: How do you sell Agile when the client is looking for Fixed Price & Fixed Scope contracts?
A: This is a tough one, as for me the idea of Fixed Price and Fixed Scope is a bad combination to start with, irrespective of approach. Part of the sell of Agile is the need to educate the client that Fixed Price / Fixed Scope projects are bad for both sides, as it is a very rigid contract, that ends up needing many additional requests added at additional expense to the client, and what can become a very adversarial relationship between the client and the service provider..
There are no easy answers to the above two questions, this will be addressed over time, as the client starts to realize the value of Agile, and become more Agile them selves regarding the way that the contracts are drafted, so that it becomes a collective effort to achieve the end business goals and needs.
Check out the Wiki for the agile 2005 conference, and click on the Open Spaces link for a summary of the discussion we had during our Open Space, this site also contains links to all of the other Open Space topics that where discussed and reported on.
David Chapman and I held an Open Space session today, Wednesday 27th of July at the Agile 2005 Conference. We wanted to discuss issues and resolutions to bringing Agile to Capital Markets, a key issue we had and wanted to get traction on was, ‘how do you sell the Agile approach to an organization that is predominantly waterfall’, and ‘how do you sell Agile when the client is looking for Fixed Price & Fixed Scope contracts’
We expected no one to show up to our Open Space, as we have heard nothing relating to the Finance industry at all so far during this conference. We where pleasantly surprised when a single person showed up to discuss the topic with us, the individual was from Algorithmics, currently starting to roll out Agile techniques on his projects.
In Summary, there are no easy solutions to the two main questions;
Q: How do you sell the Agile approach to an organization that is predominantly waterfall?
A: You need to pick your battles carefully and identify a project that has minimal risk to the client, and that has a reasonable price point, i.e. keep the cost low. To do this you need to know your client well, so that these opportunities can be spotted and discussed with the client. Bottom Line is that results sell, so if you successfully deliver an Agile project, then the next one will be easier to sell.
Q: How do you sell Agile when the client is looking for Fixed Price & Fixed Scope contracts?
A: This is a tough one, as for me the idea of Fixed Price and Fixed Scope is a bad combination to start with, irrespective of approach. Part of the sell of Agile is the need to educate the client that Fixed Price / Fixed Scope projects are bad for both sides, as it is a very rigid contract, that ends up needing many additional requests added at additional expense to the client, and what can become a very adversarial relationship between the client and the service provider..
There are no easy answers to the above two questions, this will be addressed over time, as the client starts to realize the value of Agile, and become more Agile them selves regarding the way that the contracts are drafted, so that it becomes a collective effort to achieve the end business goals and needs.
Check out the Wiki for the agile 2005 conference, and click on the Open Spaces link for a summary of the discussion we had during our Open Space, this site also contains links to all of the other Open Space topics that where discussed and reported on.
posted by DLG @ 3:38 AM
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