Unit 12 Valpak

The transformation that took place at Valpak was to transition the entire IT organization to Agile/Kanban processes with 2-week sprint delivery cycles, heading toward “The Agile Enterprise”.

This product roadmap lays out the action plans for forty plus products that serve a global market with over $100M in capital development. She recently received a Masters degree in Management with a focus on Organizational Leadership with honors from Colorado State University, holds two BA’s from Regis University with honors, certified Project Management Professional (PMP) 2004, completed Pearson Emerging Leader program in 2011, and became Scaled Agile certified 2013. She is a member of both the Golden Key and Sigma Beta Delta honor societies. Marianne resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband, two sons, and her dog Felix. In her spare time she makes pottery, and volunteers as a founding member of Impact 100 Denver

At Valpak, the entire IT organization were using Agile Scrum or Kanban processes with two-week sprint delivery cycles. Moreover, one-third of the projects were using hybrid methodologies.

Many business use the agile organizational methodology. As they require the ability to remain flexible, enduring ever-changing requirements. The agile organization develops more mission-critical, high-profile systems. Sharing responsibility within small teams (of 15 or less) is also a main principle of an agile organization. Never is a hierarchy design operational in the agile organization, as the group possess the ability to over ride decisions made by management. The agile type of organization displayed itself over time as an entrepreneurial type of organization providing the high-speed changing rather than the standardization of a bureaucratic organization (Johnson, Jackson, & Burrows, 2011).

Cost and resource needs are higher for traditional than Agile due to Waterfall’s sequential development phase of all requirements determined in the beginning, software design and finally implementation of master design. The need for all information up front takes substantial time to gather and the sequential design does not allow for project changes as the flow enters into the programming stage. With Agile, costs remain low because there exists an incremental and iterative approach to the project, meaning less time is used to collect all requirements up front, the

An a very fast paced business climate, organizations are forced to adapt and do things differently. A popular method for managing change while continuously delivering is to form Agile teams. Agile is to adapt to change when it occurs, rather than anticipated change (Smith, 2014). This mode of doing business is going to be foreign to some team members. The traditional way of task oriented thinking has changed. Project priorities and decision making are handed down to Agile teams. Team members are encouraged to work together as a team and also across teams. Everyone will have ownership and accountability for not only individual work but for the team work. There will be frequent changes to the direction

“Agile” was first introduced in 2001, by a team of software engineers looking to improve their adaptiveness and responsiveness to ever-changing requirements. Not knowing where to begin, the team began by formulating principles, which they would use to guide their new development process. Which, in turn, lead to the creation of the Agile Manifesto, and thus a new methodology was born.

Thus, Agile came into play. This is a faster and smaller method over traditional. Stakeholders get together with small teams to look at cost, resources and expected time frames. This team figures out the computer verbiage, checks and balances, verification coding, iterations, number limits, scripts, all in the early stages of development.

The agile methodology with scrum-based approach has worked effectively for our organization because it is flexible and iterative with continuous feedback and constant communication and favored by frequent and short delivery schedules (Chang, 2010). This approach brings about a high level of competence and high level of motivation to work. It also instills discipline and respect for time by

Using the Agile approach enabled us to organize the software project into chorological order from the User Requirements to the End product. The requirements were formed by meeting our client Fernando on regular bases discussing the requirements of the program. He would assure

Now agile methodologies—which involve new values, principles, practices, and benefits and are a radical alternative to command-and-control-style management—are spreading across a broad range of industries and functions and even into the C-suite. National Public Radio employs agile methods to create new programming. John Deere uses them to develop new machines, and Saab to produce new fighter jets. Intronis, a leader in cloud backup services, uses them in marketing. C.H. Robinson, a global third-party logistics provider, applies them in human resources. Mission Bell Winery uses them for everything from wine production to warehousing to running its senior leadership group. And GE relies on them to speed a much-publicized transition from 20th-century

In the world of Computer Science, Information Technology, and Software development, people always work together to get tasks done. Whether you get someone from the Business side, the programming side, the Cyber Security side, or even HR, these people all work together sometimes to work on a task and finish the task. Agile is one of the most prominent method of using and as well as building a design for a client’s needs. But to make it a little more complicated, there a few different subsets within Agile – Scrum and Waterfall.

Agile techniques should be used to solve the current issues faced by the company as agile techniques normally being used by the software industry help the business to act in response under the unpredictable situations faced. In Agile methodologies opportunities are been provided to evaluate whether the project is under the direction all through its development cycle. All this is being accomplished with the help of regular tempo kept in work, and the teams must show a product which is having the desired potential.

Agile is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development which is performed in a highly collaborative manner by self-organizing teams within an effective governance framework, with "just enough" ceremony, that produces high quality solutions, in a cost effective and timely manner which meets the changing needs of its stakeholders [1].

In conclusion, agile software development is a very exciting and useful approach, although some project suit agile more than others. The collaboration and visibility can provide a much better and rewarding experience for the team to develop software products. Over the last years, many companies dramatically improved their performances