Large-Scale Adoption of Lean and Agile at Software AG

Abstract

The transformation from waterfall to lean and agile methodologies at Software AG started a couple of years ago. With approximately 50 agile teams in 15 locations around the world, the transition has at times been a bumpy ride and is still ongoing. The journey has helped the company to progress from unpredictable release schedules to in-time delivery, from unclear product and feature status to transparent backlog status. Features that span multiple teams and products are always challenging and this is an explicit area we have targeted for improvement. Another focus area was the development of a comprehensive “assembly line” for building and testing our complex suite of products to implement continuous integration and delivery. During the transition we have changed processes, tools, and metrics, as well as the behavior of the organization, of individual, and of team. This article will provide an overview of the changes implemented to introduce lean and agile in Software AG’s webMethods division.

Gabriele Kampfmann (Software AG) with contributions from Christoph Rohland (Software AG), Jay Gauthier (Software AG) and other Software AG colleagues.