Agile in the Era of Digitalization: A Finnish Survey Study

Abstract

Agile software development has been applied since the early 2000s. It is now mainstream industrial practice in information and communication technology (ICT) companies and IT organizations. However, recently increasing and even disruptive digitalization has brought new drivers and needs for agility both in software organizations as well as in traditional companies, which are becoming more and more software-intensive. Following that line of developments, based on our recent survey conducted in Finland in 2018, in this paper we explore the current state of the affairs with respect to how different organizations currently address agility and agile development in both IT and non-software industrial sectors. The results show that operative goals (productivity, quality) are considered the most important ones to achieve by agile means. Scrum, Kanban and DevOps are the most frequently reported methods, and SAFe is the dominant scaling model. Lead time metrics are the most typically followed measurements. The operative goals as well as responsiveness are also the most highly ranked future aims. The impacts of digitalization are considered substantial but agile developments are seen to address them well. As a conclusion of this survey study, there is no “one agile way” for all. Different organizations seem to emphasize multiple aspects of agility when they develop, adapt and even transform themselves. Yet, also many commonalities were indicated.