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Six months ago, ASI fully adopted AGILE for both software and hardware teams as a way to make processes more efficient and deliver more value to customers. AGILE design processes focus on infusing quality and accountability into development tasks while also giving engineers more flexibility in dealing with unforeseen changes to their original plan.

Richard Netzley, Chief Operations Officer at ASI, recently gave a presentation to a group of masters and doctoral students at Utah State University’s Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences department.
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The students, who have been focusing on methods of design, invited Netzley to speak on the benefits ASI has seen from AGILE. The following blog describes ASI’s AGILE installation and reactions to Richard’s presentation.

While most AGILE companies follow a similar framework, the way each company employs AGILE is usually entirely unique to the company. “Each company will really need to take a little different approach and doing so will ensure that the system actually works,” said Michael Doxey, ITLS Master’s student who was present for the discussion.
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ASI AGILE standup meeting
ASI’s daily routine now involves AGILE standup meetings

The AGILE development process calls for breaking down large projects into smaller deliverable pieces developed over a short time frame.
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The short development periods are called “sprints” or “iterations.” With tangible examples at the end of each sprint, customers have an opportunity to provide feedback during the process rather than waiting until the final product is delivered. ASI currently uses two-week sprints with demonstrations concluding each sprint. ASI found that open communication and self-regulation are critical to AGILE. Software and hardware engineers gather for daily standup meetings which provide an open forum to set and discuss daily action plans. According to Netzley, each team member answers three questions:
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  • What did I do yesterday?
  • What am I going to do today?
  • What’s stopping my progress?

During the standup meetings, engineers and managers keep track of daily progress as well as quickly identify and solve obstacles. Planning meetings and end-of-sprint retrospective meetings allow ASI engineers to reflect on what well, what didn’t, and keep the big picture in mind as they prepare for the next sprint.

Along with major process changes came some infrastructure changes too. ASI facilities staff built an entire internal wall dedicated to tracking the AGILE process. “We looked at a lot of software solutions,” said Netzley, “but none of them were able to give us the big picture view of all projects we were looking for.
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“Most software applications give you a list of projects, but you can’t see your progress unless you drill into each of them. Our wall tells us exactly where we’re at with everything.”

Benefits
ASI engineers were asking for a process change like AGILE to help them better keep track of their work and progress toward the final goal. Their dedication to the AGILE process is already paying off dividends. “AGILE has already been highly successful for us,” said Netzley. “Back in December, we were three months behind on some of our projects. Now, we’re right where we should be.” Engineers continue to refine the ASI’s style of AGILE by suggesting improvements and modifications each planning meeting.
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“Testing is no longer behind schedule,” said Netzley. “In fact, some developers now write tests for our quality assurance team to use during testing which was not something we had time to do before.”

“I was really intrigued by just how much [ASI’s] productivity and product quality increased,” said Anna Strommer, ITLS Master’s student. “It would be difficult to get used that style of management at first, but I think in the end there are some really great benefits to it.”

Looking Ahead
After only six months, ASI has seen drastic improvements in both quality and productivity through the use of AGILE, and looks forward to continued advances.
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AGILE’s adaptability allows the same processes to be used in many areas throughout a company. In fact, it can even be used to efficiently run a family! As software and hardware continue to hone their new procedures, other departments are looking toward AGILE as a way to improve as well.

As for the presentation? “I thought the presentation was fascinating,” said Mimi Recker, Department Head of ITLS. “I appreciated the way Richard ‘opened the hood’ to show how ASI chose to implement the Agile process, rather than speaking on a abstract and theoretical level. I also really appreciated that he told us what worked well, and what didn’t work so well—the ‘retrospective’ in action!”
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