09 Mar 2011
CIOs should be aware that although agile software development is cheaper in the short term, the costs are often hidden in the long term maintenance.
This was the warning from analyst David Norton at the Gartner BPM Summit in London yesterday.
Agile development offers an alternative to traditional software development structures, such as waterfall or cascade.
Agile development is often perceived to be a cost-effective solution, as small changes are typically added in to respond to a dynamic environment. This compares with traditional approaches where development may be done on a large scale.
However, Norton said that because the initial costs are relatively small, CIOs often forget there are costs in the long term.
"I was speaking to a CIO about agile development and I asked him how he felt about it in his organisation. His response was, 'I wish I had never heard of it'," said Norton.
"Agile had solved his problems of productivity and not being responsive to the business, but two years into it and he had hundreds of different solutions that duplicate code and requirements, and his asset reuse had taken a nose dive," he added.
"This is one of the main things we need to think about – how do we use and leverage the benefits of agile? But also, how does it adapt in the long term?"
Norton went on to describe some "horrific figures", which suggest that only eight per cent of capital and operating agile development costs are in the initial delivery of applications. The remaining 92 per cent is found in maintaining the development over the next 10 to 15 years.
"This is a something that CIOs need to be aware of and is something we haven't really focused on in the agile community," said Norton.
Agile is a solutions to manage costs within a complex adaptive environment. Agile is not a solution for cost reduction.
If you use agile as a method for cost reduction, Norton is right.
If you use agile as a method to overcome complex changes. Norton is wrong.
Posted by: Emiel van Bockel 23 Mar 2011
“Hundreds of different solutions that duplicate code and requirements”, and failure to reuse assets are not a consequence of Agile nor are they limited to Agile management. The issues is the absence of suitable governance.
If projects are left function in isolation they will not meet strategic objectives.
IndigoBlue is regularly engaged by organisations in this situation; they have successfully adopted Agile management and engineering techniques but have allowed these projects to sit outside of their existing governance mechanisms. As a result projects have very limited applicability, do not maximise their potential and incur hidden long-term costs; often exhibiting the problems highlighted.
The solution is the introduction of governance that balances the need for corporate accountabilities with the responsiveness of Agile and enables Agile and non-Agile projects to sit together within a single reporting framework.
This is further discussed in a number of blog posts at http://www.indigoblue.co.uk/project-management/blog/weapons-grade-agile
Posted by: Rob Smith 11 Mar 2011
Whether your approach is Agile or not, in a longer term corporate context you have to have programme controls in place that will ensure what you're delivering meets your needs now and is convergent with longer term objectives in future: maintainability, supportability, ROI and justifiable total cost of ownership.
I am as surprised as David Norton that that the importance of long term governance of Agile may not have been given equal voice with the message about the short term gains and as part of the Agile community eagerly take up the challenge to redress this.
Posted by: Peter Bird 11 Mar 2011
If that is the sole evidence used by Gartner (or Computing) to reach its conclusion, it misses the point about Agile. But is does make for an attention-grabbing headline. There is nothing inherent in Agile that leads to duplication of code or requirements. As Aiden rightly points out, if it's a problem it lies with poor governance - and that can exist with any delivery approach.
Posted by: Rob Sucher 10 Mar 2011
"hundreds of different solutions that duplicate code "
This is what you call technical debt, it builds up and you have to devote some time and resource to prevent it becoming a problem. That is a part of being agile.
You don't get to cherry pick just the bits of agile that you like the look of. Or did he expect a silver bullet.
Posted by: Jon Blackmore 10 Mar 2011
So one comment by one CIO to one consultant who happens to work for Gartner turns into a headline? What nonsense. If agile development is carried out with no strategic overview then of course the support costs will mount up, just as they would using any other methodology if there was no adequate project governance in place.
Managed correctly, agile offers the best opportunity to avoid bloat, keep in touch with business requirements and avoid repeating costly mistakes. Perhaps the unnamed CIO should examine his governance provision and reflect on how this allowed such duplication of "code and requirement" to occur. After all, "agile" does not necessarily mean "knee-jerk" or "willy-nilly".
Posted by: Aidan Dunphy 10 Mar 2011
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