This document outlines the results and experiences of a company adopting Agile practices within an existing CMMI Level 5 enterprise. It describes the 5 phases of the process improvement, including defining Agile methodology, conducting pilots, deploying improvements, monitoring deployment, and evaluating effects. Key results included certifying 40 Scrum Masters, achieving sprint goals 86% of the time on average, and preliminary indications of a 7% improvement in net margins. Challenges included maintaining an Agile culture and slower than expected introduction of new tools. Overall, the company was able to successfully blend Agile and CMMI practices and saw benefits from the adoption of Agile.

1. © COPYRIGHT 2016 CRITICAL SOFTWARE © COURTESY OF ESA–Pierre Carril
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/01/Sentinel-35
Adopted Agile in a
CMMI L5 enterprise:
What were the Final
Results &
Experiences?
Délio Almeida
4th of June 2016 @Agile Portugal

4. © COPYRIGHT 2015 CRITICAL SOFTWARE
[Phase 1 – Define
and Improve]
Define Agile
Methodology,
Work, Processes
and Report
Establish baseline,
estimate ROI
[Phase 2 – Piloting ]
Conduct Pilots
(Update artefacts,
Select/Execute
pilots, Evaluate
Pilots and Improve)
[Phase 3 - Deploy]
Define and
Execute
Deployment Plan
[Phase 4 – Monitor
Deployment]
Monitor and
support Deployed
Improvements
[Phase 5 –
Evaluate Effects]
Evaluate and
record the effect
Process Improvement Phases:
5 months
KOM: 01-02-2013
End: 01-07-2013
7 months
KO: 01-07-2013
End: 28-02-2014
2,4 months
KO: 28-02-2014
End: 07-05-2014
18 months
KO: 07-05-2014
End: 30-10-2015
~4 months
KO: 01-11-2015
End: 29-02-2016

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WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
• A process … based on Scrum …!
• Pilot projects, train, coach, support!
• Motivated, enthusiastic people 
• Tools … yes, everyone needs tools 

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FINAL RESULTS

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WE HAVE QUALITY CERTIFICATIONS …. Now What?
Mapped the Agile methodology to
international standards for compliance
• Risk Mitigation measure
• Preliminary assessment
“Glued” our good engineering processes to
Scrum Framework
Challenged our first Agile project to ISO
9001 + EN9100 back in February 2015

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WHAT HAPPENS TODAY?
40 Certified Scrum Masters
(CSM), plus 10 Certified
Product Owners (CSPO)
Agile Methodology certified
by Quality standards
Our Sprint Goal
Achievement average is
86,47% (in 100%).
Our average Sprint Effort
Accuracy is of 98% (in
100%), with a standard
deviation of 10,95%.
AGILE used in 2 countries,
both products & projects,
Distributed teams, 28% of
all SW projects
Preliminary results show
Net Margins improvements
of ~7%

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WHAT HAPPENS TODAY?
40 Certified Scrum Masters
(CSM), plus 10 Certified
Product Owners (CSPO)
Agile Methodology certified
by Quality standards
Our Sprint Goal
Achievement average is
86,47% (in 100%).
Our average Sprint Effort
Accuracy is of 98% (in
100%), with a standard
deviation of 10,95%.
AGILE used in 2 countries,
both products & projects,
Distributed teams, 28% of
all SW projects
Preliminary results show
Net Margins improvements
of ~7%
Extended Sprint Retros
with quantitative process
control
Use Sprints historical data
to assess if our
performance is inline

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THE PURSUE FOR MATURE AGILITY …
AGILE +
WATERFALL
RATED CMMI
LEVEL 5 March
2016

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ARE WE HAPPY? YES, but still some problems…
• Agile SW Dev. Process:
–Cross-functional: Accepted some team specialization (testers, developers,
QA, UXD)
–Reporting: Linking of EVM and Agile Sprint progress
–Fixed Teams: Scrum teams sometimes diverted to other projects/tasks
–In a non-product oriented company it’s hard to create and maintain an
Agile culture more “alive”
–Introduction of new tools/techniques is sometimes slower than expected
given the business context and engineering services orientation

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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
– Having a prestigious and widely recognized
Agile Champion would have helped in the
beginning!
– It’s possible to blend successfully
Agile/Scrum + CMMI!
• Making a strong Agile Method, less documents,
less outputs, while retaining flexibility and
adaptability …
– Our own data demonstrated that reducing
Sprints from 3 weeks, to 2, and 1 week
increased the Sprint Goal Achievement
(59% -> 77% -> 86%) & Sprint Estimation
Accuracies (51%->71%->95%)

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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
–Agile adoption has enhanced other engineering & release practices
(Continuous Delivery)
–Scrum is founded on Empirical Process Control. We retained
transparency, inspection, and adaptation but added Quantitative
Process Control.
–We are happy with the Change  Internally, we feel the Agile
Adoption was successful!

14. UNFORESSEN
FORCES…
Emerging Hybrid Projects
Traditional PMs with Agile
concepts
Blend of 2 Methodologies
Waterfall projects with
Sprint cycles during Coding
Phases
….
….
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16. © COPYRIGHT 2016 CRITICAL SOFTWARE
Délio Almeida
dalmeida@criticalsoftware.com