The SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 report reflects on the state of agility within the Swiss IT community, highlighting a growing acceptance and implementation of agile methods like Scrum, but also revealing significant dissatisfaction among organizations regarding their agile processes. Key findings include that over 50% of respondents are unsatisfied with their agile implementation due to challenges such as organizational culture and inadequate strategies for adopting agile methodologies. The report underscores that while many techniques are in use, there remains considerable room for improvement across various agile practices.

1. SwissQ Agile Trends &
Benchmarks Switzerland 2012
Where are we now – where are we going to?

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 2
3 EDITORIAL
4 TRENDWAVE 2012
5 KEY MESSAGES
6 PROJECTS
7 EXPERIENCE
8 IMPLEMENTATION
9 OBSTACLES
10 FRAME OF SURVEY
11 TESTING AND REQUIREMENTS

3. EDITORIAL SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 3
Agility resounds throughout the land – there are those who adore it and there might be others who don‘t like it so much. Each to their own.
However, how does the agile landscape look like in the Swiss IT Community? Let the Trends and Benchmarks of our current survey sink in,
discuss about it and draw your own conclusions.
“Agility: Flexibility takes over from planning”, the Financial Times predicted on Whereas many are still indifferent to the agile movement, others already pay a
20 November 2007. This came true sooner than many expected. More than ever lot of attention to Scrum. Topics like using Sprints or the roles of Developers and
before, modern organizations are challenged to respond pro-actively to the fast Scrum Masters are established and almost “daily business“.
changes of today‘s global and strongly interlinked world. Plans become waste
paper before they even had a chance of being realized. The adaption of and the Two of the main topics, which are currently being worked on intensively, are the
reaction to change is a top priority. This fast and continuous modification of Definition of Done and the Product Owner Role. The Definition of Done advanced
business models also challenges the backbone of any company: the IT. rapidly by considering it as a quality gate and by incorporating acceptance criteria.
The Product Owner is recognized more and more in his role as a key player and
Agile approaches, in particular Scrum, have hit the nail on the head. In the last therefore is challenged to a greater extent. In the end it is his work which forms
years, the “Lean & Agile“ approach significantly gained momentum. A lot is the basis for a successful product and for the acceptance by the end user.
promised, a lot is set up, but the expectations are often not met. It seems that the
reality is much more complex and laborious than books and shiny presentations An amassing of topics can be noticed in the growth-sector of the Trend Wave.
let you believe. The report at hand is based on a survey with more than 300 The restricted view from just one Sprint to the next Sprint is slowly being replaced
participants and numerous interviews with IT-executives. Thus, it presents facts. by transparent overall planning and efficient backlog management. Thus, the
It shows, where agility stands in Switzerland today, what difficulties the overall view of the product is becoming more focused. In addition to that, new
community faces day after day and which topics are being actively pursued. ways of collaboration are being tried out in terms of place or discipline.
Keywords on this would be: online collaboration and co-location, and accordingly
The benchmarks depicted in a multitude of informative charts and diagrams form embedded Scrum testers and agile requirements engineers.
the backbone of this report and allow you to position your company in comparison
to others. In addition there are topics whose future trend development is not yet assessable.
Or were you concerned with Management 3.0 before?
In order to show the currentness of the examined topics, we use the SwissQ Trend
Wave®. It shows in four phases how select topics will most likely develop over time We wish you lots of interesting findings by reading the agile report and lots of fun
and in turn allows you to appraise the influence of these trends on your business. on your way to more flexibility and agility.

4. TRENDWAVE 2012 SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 4
INTRODUCTION GROWTH MATURITY DECLINE
PRIORITY
Dashboards Definition of Done
Product Owner Role
Early Feedback
Software as a Service / Cloud Computing End User Involvement
Test Automation
Online Collaboration
Scrum Master
Continuous Build, Integration & Test
Embedded Tester
Product Roadmap
Cultural Change Issue Tracking Tools
ATDD
Self-Organisation Developer Role
Priority Poker
Agile Requirements Engineering
Definition of Ready Portfolio Management
Management 3.0 Sprints
TIME
INTRODUCTION – This topic has been GROWTH – This topic is more and MATURITY – Most companies are DECLINE – The topic has already
identified and some companies are more accepted and many companies working on the implementation been implemented by most of the
deploying initial implementations. are considering it. The first tools are or have already completed it. The companies, with the exception of
However, it cannot be foreseen being developed and consultancy knowledge of this topic is often individual latecomers. Often, there
whether this trend will positively firms offer services for the same. widespread, resulting in sub-topics is no more added value in acquiring
advance and whether testing will be Often risks are associated due to being raised. further knowledge in these areas,
considerably influenced. limited implementation experience. since it will become obsolete shortly.

5. KEY MESSAGES SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 5
1 2 3
More than 50 % are not satisfied 67.6 % of the respondents use 73 % of the respondents already
with the implementation of their MS-Office Tools in the agile area, carried out agile projects and
agile approach. This is most likely followed by JIRA with 31.0 % and therefore see themselves as
explained by the lack of strategies HP QC with 28.2 %. experienced with agile methods.
to implement the agile methods. The only question is, how
“experienced” is defined.
4 5 6
Whereas most techniques are used by Better handling of constantly More than half of the companies
more than 70 % of the respondents, changing priorities is considered apply agile development practices.
there are still some techniques with to be one of the main reasons to Thereof 84.5 % of the respondents
a lot of catching up to do, like TDD, implement agile methods, as well use Scrum as their preferred agile
ATDD, Kanban or the Definition as increasing productivity and method.
of Done. accelerating time-to-market.
7 8 9
The executives have major Not the agile approach itself is the 52 % of the respondents stated
concerns: less forward planning, main obstacle but the required that agile projects fail because of
less predictability and less transformation of the organisation. lack of experience, 42 % because
documentation. the corporate culture was not
compatible with agile principles.

6. PROJECTS SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 6
Software Development Process Tools in the Agile Context
More than half of the companies use agile processes. Many of them are
using a combination of different development processes e.g. agile in
combination with waterfall. MS Office (Word, Excel) 67.6 %
Atlassian JIRA / Greenhopper 31.0 %
HP QC / ALM 28.2 %
Open Source 19.7 %
Agile MS Team Foundation Server 16.9 %
51 % Others 15.5 %
Waterfall
40 % Version One 5.6 %
Proprietary Development 5.6 %
Iterative
Hermes Rally Software Development 2.8 %
22 % RUP 12 %
16 %
Inflectra Spira 2.8 %
CA Agile Vision 0.0 %
Agile Methods in Use 0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 %
Scrum 84.5 %
Kanban 16.9 %
84.5 %
Own agile hybrid Version 15.5 %
Extreme Programming (XP) 14.1 %
Agile Unified Process 11.3 %
Others 9.9 % of the respondents use Scrum
as their favorite agile method.
SCRUMBAN 8.5 %
Feature Driven
0.0 %
Development (FDD)
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %

7. EXPERIENCE SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 7
Personal Experience in Agile Methods Use of Agile Techniques
Agile techniques like iterative planning, daily stand-up meetings, taskboards
and retrospective meetings are already well in place. TDD, ATDD and Kanban
are techniques which are of particular interest at the moment.
60 %
54.9 %
40 %
Iterative Planning 89.6 %
20 % 23.9 %
18.3 % Daily Standup 82.1 % 13.4 %
2.8 %
0 %
Backlog Management 80.6 % 6.0 % 9.0 %
Very experienced Experienced Little experience No
(many years of (carried out (theoretical experience
practical first projects) knowledge) Taskboard 75.8 % 6.5 % 16.1 %
experience)
Retrospectives 72.7 % 7.6 % 15.2 %
Burndown Chart 67.2 % 6.0 % 22.4 %
3/4
of the respondents are already
Definition of Done
Velocity Chart 38.1 %
57.8 %
9.5 %
14.1 %
46.0 %
21.9 %
experienced with agile methods.
On-Site Customer 34.8 % 12.1 % 48.5 %
Co-Location 26.6 % 65.6 %
Test Driven
2/3
20.3 % 31.3 % 46.9 %
Development (TDD)
Kanban 15.9 % 19.0 % 63.5 %
Acceptance Test Driven 11.1 % 23.8 % 63.5 %
of the respondents have Development (ATDD)
less than 2 years experience
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %
in agile projects.
Is used Use is planned No more use Is not an issue

8. IMPLEMENTATION SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 8
Drivers of Agile Methods Implementation Steps
60 %
Piloting the agile approach 43.3 % 32.8 % 23.9 %
52.1 % in a single project
40 %
Training and coaching 38.8 % 31.3 % 29.9 %
39.4 % 38.0 % 36.6 % the involved roles
20 %
Expansion to suitable projects 33.3 % 26.1 % 40.6 %
19.8 %
0 % Active involvement of 32.3 % 32.3 % 35.4 %
business units (e.g. in the PO-role)
Developer Department Head Project CEO
manager / Development manager Naturally grown 29.4 % 41.2 % 29.4 %
Team lead in separate teams
Extended pilot phase 21.2 % 22.7 % 56.1 %
Reasons for Implementing Agile Methods with several projects
Rollout to all projects 9.1 % 6.1 % 84.8 %
(big bang)
Improving the handling of
15.9 % 62.3 % 17.4 % 4.3 %
changing priorities Assessment of the organization 2.9 % 29.4 % 67.6 %
Improving collaboration between 17.4 % 52.2 % 21.7 % 8.7 %
business and IT 0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %
Accelerating time-to-market 28.6 % 31.4 % 27.1 % 12.9 % Yes To some extent No
Increasing productivity 13.6 % 42.4 % 39.4 % 4.5 %
Minimizing risks 14.5 % 40.6 % 36.2 % 8.7 %
Improving team morale 7.2 % 39.1 % 39.1 % 14.5 %
Satisfaction with the Implementation
Simplifying the development process 7.2 % 34.8 % 36.2 % 21.7 %
3 %
Improving development-disciplines 4.3 % 37.7 % 39.1 % 18.8 %
10 % 4 %
Everything runs smoothly - there are no problems
Increasing visibility of projects 11.9 % 26.9 % 34.3 % 26.9 %
Expected benefit was fulfilled
Increasing maintainability and 11.6 % 21.7 % 39.1 % 27.5 %
expandability of software 17 % Took longer than expected
41 %
Reducing costs 7.2 % 23.3 % 44.9 % 24.6 %
Is complicated
Managing distributed teams 8.7 % 20.3 % 33.3 % 37.7 % Does not meet expectations
Implementation cancelled
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 % 25 %
Top Priority Very Important Important Not Important

9. OBSTACLES SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 9
The Biggest Concerns Main Implementation Obstacles
No / less forward planning 41 %
Ability to change the
55 %
organizational culture
Necessity to change management style 37 %
39 %
General resistance to change
Less predictability 32 %
Availability of personnel 37 %
with necessary qualifications
Less documentation 31 %
Projects are too big or too complex 34 %
Less management control 28 %
Collaboration with the client 31 %
Not / not easily scalable 24 %
(internal / external)
Development team not ready 23 %
Lacking support of line
28 %
for change management
Insufficient discipline in development 16 % Confidence in the scalability 25 %
of agile methods
Inconsistency with the 13 %
regulatory standards Not enough time for 23 %
sustainable changes
No concerns 10 %
Cost reasons 9 %
Others 9 %
Less quality of the software 9 % Others 6 %
Quality of the development skills 7 % No obstacles 0 %
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 0 % 20 % 40 % 60 %
Main Reasons for the Failure of Agile Projects
45 % 38 % 35 %
Lack of
37 %
Corporate culture Lack of support cooperation
52 % is not compatible with from line
management
between
organisational
41 %
agile principles (theory Lack of /
Lack of experience and practice are difficult units
insufficient
to reconcile)
with External pressure training /
coaching
agile methods to follow a traditional
approach 23 %
Lack of team
motivation

10. FRAME OF SURVEY SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 10
Industrial Sector Responsibilities
More than 60 % of the respondents work either in the IT or in the More than 50 % of the respondents describe their job with more than
financial sector. Compared to the last years their proportion has decreased, one role. Especially test managers don’t work 100 % as test managers,
demonstrating that the subject has arrived in other industries too. but also take responsibility for other roles.
IT 36.1 % 30 %
Finance, Insurance 28.4 %
Manufacturing 7.4 %
20 %
Public and semi-public companies 7.4 %
Traffic and Transportation 5.6 %
Telecommunication 4.0 %
10 %
MedTech 3.7 %
Others 7.4 %
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 %
0 %
IT Employees ge
r r A
ge / B nee age
r r
st
er ge
r
ee
r
na ana er i n Te na in
A bit more than half of the respondents work in companies with more a e ng a a
En
g
t M n M gin st E ct m ts
M
re
than 500 IT employees. Tes si o n Te e en twa
vi ts
E oj
Di Pr m f
en ire So
t / em qu
en ir Re
tm equ
par R
2001– ... 33.0 % De
501 – 2000 17.6 %
60 % 33 %
251 – 500 13.6 %
51 – 250 15.4 %
11 – 50 14.2 %
of the respondents mainly of the respondents are
1 – 10 6.2 % work in projects. line managers.
0 % 5 % 10 % 15 % 20 % 25 % 30 % 35 %

11. TRENDS & BENCHMARKS REPORTS 2012 FOR TESTING AND REQUIREMENTS SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 11
Along with the first edition of the SwissQ Agile Trends & Benchmarks Report, SwissQ published already the fourth edition of the
SwissQ Testing Trends & Benchmarks Report and as well the first edition of the SwissQ Requirements Trends & Benchmarks Report, in
2012. Do you want to know more? You can download the detailed reports with further analyses from www.SwissQ.it.
Trends & Benchmarks Trends & Benchmarks
Testing 2012 Requirements 2012
Future Investments
Cost Savings by Test Automation Investments Investments Investments
increase remain constant decrease
Education and Training
for Employees
33 % 54 % 13 %
Better Cooperation
of Business and IT
33 % 53 % 14 %
33.3 %
Standardisation of the
internal RE-Processes 25 % 61 % 14 %
Elaboration / Definition
23.7 % of the RE-Role
24 % 60 % 16 %
22.6 %
Development of
Templates and Guidelines 22 % 61 % 17 %
Hiring new
RE-Employees 22 % 55 % 23 %
10.2 % Establishing specific
RE Tools 21 % 64 % 15 %
7.3 %
2.8 %
Establishing internal
RE-Divisions/-Departments 17 % 63 % 20 %
Costs up to 10 % up to 20 % up to 50 % up to 80 % No statement
Outsourcing
increased possible
RE-Activities 11 % 48 % 41 %
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %

12. ABOUT US
SwissQ supports its clients in the development and implementation of IT-solutions and
assures that the end users get the functionality they really need. This is achieved by
unambiguously determining requirements and risk-based testing the implementation.
Our vision is to improve the added value of IT through requirements management and
software testing. Along with providing high-quality services, we pursue this vision
by establishing independent platforms, like the Swiss Testing Day and the Swiss
Requirements Day, which facilitate the exchange of know-how and experiences.
In addition to that we help bright minds to expand their knowledge in our trainings.
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