“Once You Go Agile, You Never Go Back”

Posted by Mason Power - January 25th, 2010 at 05:01:32 pm

Or so says a fan on the official Agile Manifesto web site (every revolution, even those in project management, needs a good manifesto). (Find good background on the methodology and its manifesto here).

Listening today to a webinar by Camilion about product configuration being a key driver in staying current in today’s market, we picked up on a side comment made by Novarica’s Martina Conlon who was also speaking on the webinar.

Martina said Novarica has seen an increase in the adoption of the agile methodology by carriers, saying “it proves viability through successes early in the process”. AgencyPort uses the agile method and adds a hefty dose of method tailoring in order to suit the project methodology to the needs of the particular client, including the internal methodology adopted by that client or any third party integrators they might hire.

Because of the rapid deployment capabilities of the AgencyPort framework, the agile methodology suits us well. Since many client projects involve changes to policy administration and other core processing systems (i.e. big projects where production environment milestones can be years out), our clients’ master project plan usually calls for AgencyPort deliverables to front-end the plan, thereby driving business ROI early in the process. Using an iterative approach, AgencyPort and the carrier can prioritize these high value business drivers that will get you to production quickly.

While every RFP we see asks about our methodology (e.g. agile versus waterfall), the success of our project delivery is due to the ideals we hold to be all-important (perhaps we need to write the “AgencyPort delivery manifesto”?).

These ideals include honesty (you get the good, the bad and the ugly – we believe this openness instills trust among all parties to a project and this trust drives everyone to a better result); keeping teams intact; rotating the assignments of delivery staff so they are proficient in several areas; having a team with deep domain knowledge (we know ACORD, real-time rating, upload from agency management systems, what makes portals beloved by agents, integrations, comparative raters, etc.); and importantly, we provide a team of interesting and fun people (have you seen them karaoke yet??).

We won a significant new client in December and our project methodology played a big role in their decision-making. Thanks to Martina for confirming what we have seen: an uptick in client demand for our chosen delivery methodology. Have we mentioned that all of our clients will act as a reference??

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