Agile in India: challenges and lessons learned

Indian software organizations have long been early adopters of process improvement as a means of demonstrating organizational capabilities to their global client base. As a result, the development approaches in these organizations are often heavily plan-based, generating structures and processes that are appropriate to those approaches. Agile methods have forced a paradigm change in how we manage and execute software development. Adopting and sustaining agile methods requires organizations to not only manage the radical shift in the operational aspects of software development, but also the soft factors of organizational design such as vision, commitment, culture and training. Using three case studies of organizations that have adopted agile methods in India, we highlight the importance of senior leadership vision, mentoring, and personnel selection in creating an environment that will support successful agile adoption. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of building strong teams, managing customer expectations and driving process excellence as key for successful adoption.