In the beginning…

The Enterprise Agile Blog’s mission is to establish a new conversation within the agile community focused on agile within the enterprise context and specifically within the corporate IT setting. Most agile enthusiasts approach the agile methodology from an ISV or new software development perspective. This isn’t a bad thing but it certainly leaves a large void in the dialog for those people, like myself, who are attempting to establish agile within a corporate IT setting where new software development isn’t the only show in town.

So where do I see this going? Quite honestly this blog’s purpose is a bit selfish. First I am seeking a dialog where I can tap into the experiences of other agile enthusiasts so that I and my team can learn and continue to apply new disciplines, principles and processes. Second this blog will be an avenue for the team I lead to share their experiences and expertise with the agile community. Lastly I hope to provide insight (the good, the bad & the ugly) into my organization’s agile journey and our struggles and successes to implement agile within a corporate enterprise IT setting.

Now a bit of background… My name is Alan Ruth and I am the Sr. Director of Enterprise Applications at Graebel – a global relocation company headquartered in Denver, CO . I joined Graebel almost 4 years ago and have since had the unique fortune to lead a great team of software engineers and business analysts. We began our agile journey in late 2005 and have not looked back since. Yes we have had plenty of fits and frustrations over the years but we are definitely a much more nimble, effective and strategically aligned technology department due to “living agile” than we ever were before.

We did not tackle this endeavor on our own but instead engaged Pete Behrens of Trail Ridge Consulting to act as a mentor and guide. This partnership with Pete has been invaluable and I would highly recommend such an arrangement to anyone. Another key component that enabled our implementation and the success we have realized so far to date is the support and leeway provided by several key executives within Graebel. One in particular, Graebel’s CIO and my boss – Don Tarkenton, was and continues to be instrumental. From day one Don fully supported my agile vision and gave me the freedom, flexibility and encouragement to institutionalize the mindset and its “new” disciplines. He didn’t always see the “light” but he remained a steady champion of the vision and never wavered. One other vital component to our implementation that I believe must be mentioned is my team of engineers, analysts and their leaders. Without their willingness to change, take my direction and endure my constant desire for improvement we would have never gotten far.

Graebel follows a Scrum methodology with some nuances (like 2 week sprints instead of 30 days). We are primarily a .NET development shop but we also maintain/enhance custom Oracle Forms applications. We leverage Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server for our source control, builds and agile process management. The team consists of about 20 software engineers and 5 business analysts (which we call product managers). The team is geographically dispersed between Denver, CO and Wausau, WI.  

With all that behind us we can now effectively embark on our journey. Subsequent postings will focus on how we have evolved to fit agile into our corporate environment as well as share our successes, disciplines and vision for agile at Graebel.