Agile Scaling Factors explicitly addresses the challenges that agile teams face in the enterprise, both in the real world and during the actual development process. The agile scaling factors are:
Global Spread
What happens if an agile team is globally distributed geographically, even internationally? When problems arise, how far do you go in fixing them? Does your company have the expertise to address complex issues that may occur with the global distribution of agile teams? The answer is no. When faced with these scaling issues, how far are you willing to go? When the answers to these questions are not satisfactory, scaling must be suspended, or the business will not thrive.
Geographically Dispersed Teams
It’s not enough for agile scaling factors to be globally distributed and address the complex issues of globalization. Teams must be able to share information and collaborate effectively across distance. For example, in an automobile manufacturing company located in California, it would be challenging for a team located in Europe to work out problems as quickly as they would have been able to on their own. Likewise, when a team in India is asked to troubleshoot problems in the United States, the first step will be a cultural fit rather than necessarily a technology fit. A disciplined agile delivery lifecycle must consider the fact that technologies used in one country may not be immediately usable everywhere.
Operational Flexibility and Regulatory Compliance
Agile has the potential to dramatically reduce operational costs in both the short and the long term. Allowing for less routine maintenance can free up internal resources for higher value-added endeavors like strategic thinking and the creation of better customer experiences. Agile teams should therefore model the best practices of their competitors so that they can build on existing expertise and knowledge to avoid making costly mistakes that can erode their competitive edge. Agile teams also face the risk of creating a disincentive to deliver improvements when they meet predetermined thresholds.
Domain Complexity and Geographic Distribution
Agile processes should not be implemented at the team level without adequate consideration of both of these issues. The first, and arguably most important consideration, concern the legal constraints imposed by the organizational decision-making processes. Depending on the nature of the team and its relationship with customers, a formal legal framework may dictate the scope of the technical work that needs to be performed within the organization. Likewise, the geographical distribution of the team members may determine the degree of technology transfer between the team and the customer. Scaling factors, therefore, have to consider both the legal constraints and the degree of technology transfer that occurs.
