Category: agile adoption

Agile Success Story: interview on how Agile movement helps company to grow and succeed

October 23, 2008 by pbielicki

Picture courtesy of M. Keefe@flickr

Last week I had a great fun and honour to interview Janusz Gorycki who is a partner and a team manager in an Agile Software Development company - Spartez. Janusz is also the author of the open-source screen capture and painting utility for Windows named Mazio.

In this interview I'm asking Janusz about how they founded their company and how agile movement helped them achieve success. I'm also asking how they see their agility, what problems they have and how they deal with them. Janusz also answers why you can be CMMI-compliant using agile methodologies and recommends steps by which you can start applying Agile practices in your company.

Is this interview about yet another agile company? Not really - Spartez is an extraordinary company composed of ordinary engineers who were not afraid of making their dreams come true. Their determination, team work, a bit of luck and an extreme agile spirit helped them be and work together and become successful. This is a real-life example how cross-functional team, where each member is an expert in some areas, is able to deliver any software to any customer. And how do I know this? I used to be a part of this team at Intel and know this team as well as each member pretty well, however I'm not affiliated with them anymore in any way.

If you are interested in getting to know how they started, what and how they do now, this article is for you. Maybe you will follow their dreams and ideas - I think it's worth.

What are CIO's thinking? (or are they thinking)

March 7, 2008 by cspag

OK, maybe it's just me that finds this funny, but a recent survey by Stelligent of CIO's found the following:

- 72% of CIO's said that NO, they did not have a solid understanding of Agile Development Methodologies.

- 72% of CIO's said YES, they are open to adopting agile methods.

Baby steps into agile

January 28, 2008 by cspag

I was watching an old movie last night that I think is hysterical called "What About Bob?" starring Richard Dreyfus and Bill Murray. Bill Murray plays a guy with tons of phobias. Richard Dreyfus plays his doctor who is teaching him about taking baby steps to overcome his fears. Bill Murray has one particular phobia about riding in elevators. At one point in the movie, he decides to finally try getting on an elevator and says "Baby steps onto the elevator...baby steps into the elevator...I'm in the elevator" (the doors close) "HELLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!".