Second paper reviewed: Agile Development in a bureaucratic arena – A case study experience
Author: Hilary Berger Cardiff School of Management
Year Published: 2007
Date Reviewed: September
22nd, 2011
Review:
After having questions regarding the success of Agile in a hierarchical
organization, I tried to look for research in this area. I chanced to look into
this particular paper by Hilary Berger. This is a case study of a real project
by a UK Regional Government Department that is responsible for managing the
administration and expenditure of the European Union’s Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP).
This paper has shown that Agile Development has enabled the
users to finally get a released product fast enough. However, it also showed
the hindrances programmers faced during this process. Due to the inequalities
in the organization, the inherent ‘blame’ system continued during this too.
According to Agile, a programming delay should be flexible enough to be
deferred to the next release. This was not accepted easily by the levels in
management. The blame culture remained prevalent.
One more factor was that higher levels in the bureaucracy
were reluctant in relinquishing control of the project. Agile relies on quick decision-making
activities at the developer level. The senior levels however found it difficult
to give this decision-making power in the hands of the base level programmers.
The paper however concluded that the basic culture must
evolve in order to make Agile highly effective. I somehow find this idea
utopian as it is very difficult to make and break a corporate culture. I feel
that there must be some way in which one can make Agile effective even in a
bureaucracy. I believe that if this methodology can bring about a flexibility
in the development of software, it should be flexible by itself to adapt to any
culture it is used in.
