Modern method of software development gains ground in PH, says firm

MANILA, Philippines – “We believe Agile is a more efficient way of developing software. A wider acceptance of Agile in the Philippines would mean that local companies are becoming more progressive by doing things better and faster,” said Orange & Bronze (O&B) CEO Calen Legaspi at the Agile2012 Conference held in Dallas, Texas.

Agile2012 is the leading international conference focused on advancing Agile methods for software development. As a sponsor, O&B continued its support of the growing Agile community as development, management and business stakeholders in the software development industry gathered to exchange ideas, experiences and best practices.

Aside from sponsorship, Mike Mallete, O&B VP of Consulting Services, was part of the speaker line-up for the event. Mallete presented “Motivated and Hyper-productive Agile Teams by Abolishing Performance Appraisals,” a talk that tackled improving productivity and employee morale the Agile way.

“Agile2012 was a good venue for O&B to exchange war stories with companies around the world with varying maturity in terms of Agile adoption,” said Mallete. “It was a great opportunity as well to interact with the originators of the movement as well as the current movers and shakers, and let them hear about our progress in the Philippines.”

O&B is possibly the first software company in the Philippines to use Agile. Legaspi, together with co-founder Butch Landingin, are strong advocates of the methodology. Legaspi explained that adopting the methodology may be daunting for organizations, which are used to the traditional model of developing software. However with the right approach, it can dramatically improve productivity and efficiency.

The intent of Agile is to build the most valuable features in the most efficient way possible, and to minimize creating extra work. “Agile is meant to foster self-organization by creating self-managing teams. It promotes the “One Team” approach, which means every single team member has a stake in the project – the customer, developers, quality assurance personnel, marketing staff, and project managers,” said Legaspi.

An increasing number of companies around the world are using this iterative approach to software, mainly because it delivers software capabilities incrementally, it lowers risks, and expedites time-to-market. It is slowly gaining ground in the Philippines, but Filipino firms still need to be educated on how to properly transform their organizations into an agile one – that is to learn how to manage the shift in organizational culture, the change in mental models, and the tools to successfully adopt it.

“There is a lot of interest in Agile in the Philippines. We’ve received many inquiries on how it can be implemented in various local organizations. Clearly, people see the organizational benefits, the question now is how to properly adopt it. This can be accomplished by the combined involvement and commitment of everyone involved in a consistent feedback-driven way,” Legaspi said.