IT Project Success Survey 2011 October 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/scottAmbler.html

Copyright 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

How To Use These Slides • I have provided these slides, and the raw data behind them, so that others can use them in their own work.

• You may reuse all, or a part of, this slide deck as long as you provide a clear reference to the source.

• The suggested reference is: Results from Scott Ambler’s 2011 IT Project Success Survey posted at www.agilemodeling.com/surveys/ Some slides have notes Copyright 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

About the Survey • October 2011 • Survey link included in: – October 2011 DDJ Agile article – My blog at www.ddj.com

– www.ambysoft.com/surveys/ page – Tweet by @scottwambler – Posting to [email protected]

– Posting to several discussion forums (CIPS, IASA, TDWI, Enterprise Architecture Network, Greater IBM connection, and Considerate Enterprise Architecture Group) on LinkedIn • Data, summary, and slides downloadable from www.ambysoft.com/surveys/ • 178 respondents – 27% were developers or modelers, 51% were managers or team lead/Scrum masters – 84% had 10+ years in IT – 25% worked in orgs of 500+ IT people – 51% North American, 25% European, 18% Asia Pacific Copyright 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Defining Success • Time/Schedule – 20% prefer to deliver on time according to the schedule – 26% prefer to deliver when the system is ready to be shipped – 51% say both are equally important • Return on Investment (ROI) – 15% prefer to deliver within budget – 60% prefer to provide good ROI – 25% say both are equally important • Value – 4% prefer to build the system to specification – 80% prefer to meet the actual needs of stakeholders – 16% say both are equally important • Quality – 4% prefer to deliver on time and on budget – 57% prefer to deliver high-quality, easy-to-maintain systems – 40% say both are equally important • Only 12% of respondents indicated that their definition of success on their most recent project included all three of delivering according to schedule, within budget, and to the specification. Copyright 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Why agile? Higher success rates

Iterative Agile Lean Ad-Hoc Traditional 0% 20% 40% Successful 60% Challenged 80% Failed 100%

Copyright 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Why agile? It works better

Quality -0.8

Value -0.5

ROI -0.8

-0.4

-1.4

-1.2

Time 1.0

2.0

4.6

4.6

4.8

5 5.2

6.3

3.6

4.4

5.4

4.6

4.7

5

Copyright 2011 Scott W. Ambler www.ambysoft.com/surveys/

Iterative Agile Lean Traditional Ad-Hoc