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Agile: it’s not just for IT anymore

Brian Weiss

PMI’s Vice President, Practitioner Markets

IT organisations have long relied on Agile project management techniques to help them achieve these goals. As global competition increases, more industries are taking notice of Agile’s versatility and incorporating it to their toolkits.


High-performing organisations outside of IT are demonstrating that adhering to proven Agile practices is an effective strategy to reduce risks, cut costs, and improve success rates of projects and programmes. Organisations from industries such as financial services, education, energy, construction, and government are all reporting that, when implemented correctly and in the right conditions, Agile can give great results. According to Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession® In-Depth Report: Organisational Agility, organisations that are adept at agile processes are twice as likely to report success with their new initiatives as their counterparts with low agility.

Respondents to PMI’s Report identified key actions that they associate with the successful implementation of agile methodology at their organizations:

  • 64% cited ‘shorter decision / production / review cycles’
  • 54% cited ‘integrating the voice of the customer’
  • 53% cited ‘elimination of organization silos’.

Regardless of which subset of tools they use, practitioners at organisations that have incorporated Agile practices agree on one point: Agile is what you make of it. The cultivation of an Agile project culture evolves organically within an organisation based on its unique needs, assisted by rigorous change management processes. Rather than jumping in head-first, you’ll want to select, sample and incorporate the techniques that best fit your company profile, and integrate them into project processes in manageable, measured increments.

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