Go Agile - The Mantra For Business Success

The Agile method of work is an unexplored business methodology in India. Not many are aware of the benefits of this method and many others are not willing to change.

Thoughtworks, a systems integrator serving global 1000 companies from offices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and India (Bangalore and Pune), believes strongly in the Agile approach to work and recommends the same to all its clients. Vivek Prahlad, director, ThoughtWorks, shares with Biztech2 his predilection and the level of awareness in the Indian market for this innovative method.

What are Agile methods?

ThoughtWorks is well-known as a leader in the field of Agile methods. Traditional methods of developing software tend to follow a strict, stage-by-stage process. A downside of these methods is that customers get to see working software after a long period of time - often, in the order of years. As a result, it is extremely difficult to respond to changes and to incorporate customer feedback.

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Agile methods were born out of changing requirements, improvements in technology, and the need to respond to competitive pressures, have made it imperative to develop software in a flexible manner. Agile methods focus on delivering well-tested software at regular intervals, which allows customers to offer feedback, and prioritise the features according to their needs. Transparency, openness, and a collaborative approach are some of the things at the heart of what makes Agile teams successful.

What are the advantages of being Agile?

We believe agility is crucial in today’s competitive environment, as it is important for businesses to react to changing market requirements, and for them to leverage technology as a means of gaining competitive advantage. We think the flexibility and collaborative aspects of Agile are a powerful weapon. Agile processes and methodologies have improved the quality and speed of software we have delivered, and in the implementation of Agile practices, our clients have been able to manage risk, deliver functionality faster, and reduce total cost with improved project control.

Mention some of the challenges organisations can expect while embracing an Agile approach.

In our experience, the cultural angle of Agile, with its emphasis on openness and transparency, is often where organistions face the most challenges. However, most of our clients have found Agile to be a breath of fresh air.

What is the extent of awareness for Agile methods in India?

We have strong reasons to believe that Agile is now main-stream. The profiles of organisations that we are working with occupy a broad spectrum, all the way from startups, to established Fortune 500 companies.

We’re seeing a great deal of interest in the Indian market - we have helped several organisations understand and adopt Agile. We’ve always had the mindset that every client and every project is unique, which has translated to us adopting a pragmatic approach.

Today when almost all enterprises are joining the bandwagon of gathering various certifications in their kitty, how do you expect a market for Agile methods to work in the country?

Certifications certainly made sense when the Indian software industry was maturing - it was seen as a means of providing customers with the confidence in a company’s capabilities. However, we believe that certifications cannot compensate for real world experience and pragmatism. At the end of the day, we must remember that the most important thing is to be able to understand and solve a customer’s business problem effectively.

As an organisation we believe in delivering the best working software to our client, at every stage in the software delivery life cycle, from the earliest conception of a proposition, all the way through creation, deployment and evolution of a business asset.

How has ThoughtWorks contributed to open source?

ThoughtWorks India consistently contributes to industry thought leadership through significant contributions to the open source community. Our best known open source tools over the years have been: CruiseControl, the first Continuous Integration (ThoughtWorks Studios, the Product division of ThoughtWorks, now offers CruiseControl Enterprise, which comprises of services and support), Selenium, a functional testing tool for Web applications, QuickFIX, an Open Source implementation of the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol.

From the India office, in particular, we have OpenSourced several testing tools: Sahi, a Web Testing tool, SharpRobo, a testing tool for .NET WinForms applications, Frankenstein, a functional testing tool for Java Swing applications and Migrator, a Java based database refactoring tool.