Blog: Introducing the 13th Annual State of Agile Report!

We are excited to announce the release of the 13th annual State of Agile report. The widely-cited report includes responses from software professionals around the world who shared the latest trends, practices and values in Agile.

Looking back over the years, it is incredible to see the changes and additions to the report, as Agile adoption has grown and evolved. It’s hard to believe just a few years ago DevOps was not prominently featured, yet this year’s report states that 73 percent of respondents are either planning a DevOps initiative or have one currently underway. DevOps and Agile have grown increasingly intertwined as organizations seek to both develop and deliver quality software more efficiently, with greater speed and providing greater value to customers.

The 13th annual report features new themes, shifts in priority and expanded areas of focus. As DevOps and Agile initiatives become more common, there is a need for the two to be connected in order to see change and gain a competitive advantage. Increased visibility into Agile and DevOps outcomes are becoming more important for teams to continuously improve.

Here are the key themes and takeaways from the 13th annual State of Agile report:

Reduced project costs are a primary driver for Agile adoption – The new report shows a 71 percent increase in project cost reduction as a primary reason to adopt agile. It also cited a 27 percent increase in the reduction in project costs as a key benefit of agile. According to the report, the adoption of agile has a bigger focus on reducing project costs and improving team morale – and is less about increasing productivity and reducing risk in comparison to the year before.

DevOps is a higher organizational priority – The need to understand and improve DevOps continues to rise as a priority for organizations — with 90 percent of respondents citing it as important. The report also showed a 27 percent increase from last year in respondents who think DevOps transformation is very important.

End-to-end traceability is key to improving DevOps practices – A total of 38 percent of respondents identified end-to-end traceability from business, through development, test and deployment as the most valuable capability for DevOps improvement.

Value Stream Management is new, but important – although Value Stream Management made its debut in the report this year, 67 percent of respondents said that it was important for connecting the business to its software delivery capability.

SAFe dominates scaling methods— The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) continues to grow in adoption as the scaling method of choice and was identified as the scaling method of choice by 30% of respondents.

You can download a copy of the full State of Agile report at www.StateOfAgile.com