We have observed that many work in parallel across time zones, an organizations experience dramatic organization can accomplish more in benefits after successfully deploying the same time than co-located teams one of these four location-independent that are limited by an eight-hour agile models. For example: work day. Leveraging 24-hour, five- days-a-week development coverage € Location-independence makes an with significantly distributed (Model enterprise more agile. Using the 3) teams across U.S., India, and Mexico, minimally distributed model (Model a large financial company was able to 2), a large U.S. retailer with a delivery cut the time it took to introduce new team of 1,500+ members in India products to market by 78%. € reduced its IT operations costs by By sharing skills across multiple teams 20% and improved end customer in different locations, companies can satisfaction by 40% in 18 months. accelerate work without requiring These benefits resulted from a business experts to participate in daily combination of steps, including decision making. One U.S. retailer role rationalization, product re- was able to complete an integrated architecting, and the application of channel delivery project in just 11 DevOps practices for automating new months with fully distributed teams product deployment. (DevOps is an (Model 4) by leveraging the domain approach to IT software development skills of product specialists in many and operations that emphasizes locations. While product owners still automation to speed up software have to make prioritization decisions building, testing, and installation.) and confirm product acceptance, € Location-independence makes an they can delegate significant enterprise more productive. By using amounts of knowledge work involved all 24 hours available to execute in product development.
The Essence of Agile Page 16 Page 18