Short-term projects are taking priority at many organizations as the trend toward agile IT spreads throughout the enterprise.
Flexibility and evolution are two trademarks of successful IT, and as technology progresses at an even faster pace than in the past, traditional IT projects are changing as well.
Larger, complex projects are becoming less of a focus and shorter, more sustainable efforts to drive change and flexibility are taking over instead. This is known as agile IT.
Tech Pro Research conducted a survey in September to find out how IT departments are remaining efficient and innovative. The resulting research report, The rise of agile IT: Benefits, drawbacks, analysis, outlines the trend and the reasons for this sweeping change. Topics covered in the report include:
- Current IT projects analysis
- Completed IT projects analysis
- Benefits and drawbacks of long-term vs. short-term projects
- Business perspectives
- Career perspectives
Short-term vs. long-term projects
A significant majority of respondents felt agile IT would be beneficial to their organization, with 60% choosing this option. However, only 47% of companies are currently focusing on agile IT instead of longer-term projects.
Benefits of agile IT
The natural question is why respondents would consider agile IT beneficial to their organization. As Scott Matteson noted in the report, the respondent views on the benefits of agile IT match the documented advantages reported. These include quicker deployment of solutions, better leveraging of IT staff, and alignment with business objectives. It’s important to note that 81% of respondents felt agile IT would yield a quicker deployment of solutions compared to the 63% who found this to actually be the case in those who have implemented agile IT solutions.
Matteson wrote in the report, “The perception of more meaningful abilities to address business needs, better problem detection and prevention, reduction of costs and servicing external customer needs more effectively were similarly inflated in opinion (about 12% higher) compared to reality.”
Drawbacks experienced from agile IT
However, there were also drawbacks reported by those who have implemented agile IT. By far the two biggest disadvantages to short-term projects reported were cost increases and less effective problem detection/prevention. About a quarter of respondents (26%) also indicated solutions are not being deployed rapidly.
Long-term projects still matter
Overall, the report shows that long-term projects are not going to fade away, but the shift to agile IT is increasing. In order to stay current in the technology realm, many companies are trying to transition to agile IT with at least some projects.
There are ways to facilitate this transition, such as establishing strategic agreements and eliminating funding issues.
