Agile Survey 2024

In the first quarter of 2024, we conducted the latest edition of the Agile Survey. With more than two-thirds of respondents from the banking, capital markets, insurance, and public sectors, this white paper examines the implementation of a methodology that aims to improve productivity and automate processes in the Grand Duchy through sprints and cross-functional teams.

The learning curve for Agile has matured. Survey respondents recognise Agile as a mindset (70%) and a way of self organisation (39%). This is a sign that organisations in Luxembourg are more likely to be advanced Agile users who understand the core values of the methodology.

Over half of respondents (57%) identified ‘reduced delivery time’ as the main expected advantage Agile will bring to their companies. Implementing this methodology means prioritising cross-collaborative teams. Since happier and empowered employees tend to be more motivated and committed to their jobs, organisations will have a competitive advantage in terms of productivity and product quality.

Historically, Agile was mainly integrated into IT projects. In the current edition of the survey, this trend has changed, and respondents declared that Agile is broadly adopted for projects across various business areas (39%). Furthermore, it seems that the practice has matured, and the methodology’s implementation is widely used in the project management sphere (38%). Agile seems to be evolving towards becoming an extended framework that supports many company functions, particularly in projects that require business-IT collaboration.

Although Scrum is the most frequent Agile framework among our survey respondents (78%), the evolution of DevOps (57%) is eye-catching. It denotes that many projects are running towards automating processes across different business functions. Thus, companies use Agile methodologies to draw digital transformation roadmaps, which are increasingly part of organisations’ core strategy.

To benefit from Agile’s advantages, companies should develop an awareness of its potential challenges. Over half of respondents declared they had no tool to centralise, track, and manage Agile processes. This could be troublesome because the methodology needs an instrument to support team coordination. In point of fact, the primary negative feedback respondents revealed they have received when using Agile is ‘difficulties in coordination’ (74%), which is unsurprising considering the absence of a tool that prevents internal silos and centralises information and workflows.

Customers are a central element of Agile. In contrast to previous editions, this year’s respondents did not declare the ‘user discontent’ as a concern they received from Agile implementation. This is an excellent example of the maturity of the practice in Luxembourg; customers seem satisfied with the cross-functional collaboration and constant value delivered by organisations implementing Agile.