15th State of Agile Report
Agile adoption accelerates across the enterprise

The 15th State of Agile Report is copyrighted by Digital.ai. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary

3

What’s Trending?

4

Company Experience with Agile

6

Agile Adoption

8

Agile Challenges

11

Agile Techniques and Maturity

13

Scaling Agile

16

Agile Tooling		

17

DevOps Initiatives

18

Improving DevOps Success19

Value Stream Management

20

About the Survey

21

Demographics

22

Executive Summary
Welcome to the 15th State of Agile Report, thelongest continuous annual series of reviews of agile
techniques and practices.

stakeholders, they must bring new products tomarket faster and accelerate improvements toexisting solutions and services.

This year’s report highlights several importantmilestones in Agile’s journey from its initialprinciples aimed at software development teams
to its current widescale adoption to drive businessvalue and deliver speed and quality in softwaredelivery.

This report oﬀers a chance to look at the role Agile
has played during this tumultuous period and toreflect on how the benefits of agile practices canhelp organizations adapt and excel in the pathahead.

As we reach 20 years since the creation of the“Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” wefeel it is a good time to look back and reflect at
the remarkable journey Agile has experienced
over these past two decades.

Since the global pandemic emerged in early 2020,
organizations are now aware of the opportunities
and challenges ahead and realize being successful
in the digital age requires agility in softwaredevelopment and delivery, as well as businessstrategy and operational execution. With today’senterprises under increased pressure to respondquickly to the needs of their customers andDigital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

As you explore the 15th State of Agile Report for
current trends in agile software delivery with key
highlights from past surveys, clearly Agile has thepotential to be a steadying force in uncertain times.
To recognize the significance of the 15th editionof the State of Agile survey, we spoke with many
notable agile software delivery experts andinfluencers to get their take on the past, current
and future states of agile software delivery. You’ll
see their views intermixed throughout the report,
providing more depth and context to the findings.
We’d also like to thank both Scrum.org and Scaled
Agile for their help in distributing this year’s survey.

3

What’s Trending
Remote/hybrid workforces require a
new way of thinking
For years, respondents to the State of Agile
surveys indicated a workforce becoming
increasingly distributed and the frequent
outsourcing of work to external vendors locatedacross the globe. Unsurprisingly, this year’s
survey saw a dramatic increase in this movetoward remote work and a clear indication that
this direction isn’t temporary.
• Only 3% indicate they plan to return to theoffice full time
• 25% of respondents say they will remain
fully remote in a post-COVID world• 56% favor a hybrid approach, returning tothe office regularly but not daily
This mix of both remote and co-located work
will present a challenge for organizations
looking to continue to build on their successin 2021 and beyond. The State of Agile survey
respondents aren’t alone in this realization.
In reflecting on how COVID-19 has changed theglobal workforce, Gartner research found that,

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report“In response to the pandemic, organizations
are accelerating the adoption of newprocesses, practices, and technologies tosupport changes to product and service
delivery”.
Gartner also found that organizations will needto adapt to succeed, stating “The radically
distributed software engineering resulting
from the COVID-19 pandemic exposed
process and skills gaps that impact theability of organizations to successfully deliver
applications. The ‘new normal’ will be led byorganizations that are able to quickly identify
and address the critical skills needed to drive
their business.¹”

Agile goes mainstream
Perhaps fueled in part by an increasingly
distributed global workforce, this year’s
report sees an explosive increase in Agile
adoption across the functions of the enterprise.
Since the first report 15 years ago, we’ve seen asteady increase in the number of organizations
adopting agile practices and processes,
both inside Development and within non-IT
groups including Finance, Human Resources,
and Marketing.

¹ Gartner, Inc.: “2021 Planning Guide for Agile Software Development and DevOps,” 9 October 2020, by analysts Bill Holz, Danny Brian, Peter Hyde, Sean Kenefick, Brad Dayley, Kevin Matheny4

This year’s findings indicate significant
growth in Agile adoption within
software development teams,
increasing from 37% in 2020 to 86%
in 2021.
Growth in non-IT lines of business also rosesignificantly, doubling in adoption since last year’s
report. What’s stopping even broader adoption? The
survey shows no fewer than ten barriers to adoption,
including:• Inconsistencies in processes
and practices 46%• Cultural clashes 43%• General organizational
resistance to change 46%
Despite these challenges, it’s clear that respondents
continue to see the value of broadening Agile
adoption as a way to achieve critical businessoutcomes. In fact, 2/3 of respondents identified
managing priorities, visibility, or alignment
between business and IT as seeing the strongest
positive impact from Agile adoption. Conversely,organizational culture — once regularly cited as abarrier to adoption — is no longer a top challenge,
with only slightly more than four in 10 respondents
identifying it as a barrier.
Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

Driving DevOps and value stream
management initiatives
More than ever, organizations are under increasingpressure to deliver features that provide greater
value and new solutions that improve efficiency andreliability. Year after year, more respondents tell us
their organizations view both DevOps and value
stream management (VSM) initiatives as essential toachieving these goals.

3/4

of respondents say DevOps transformation
is important or very important to theirorganization

2/3

are involved with implementing or planninga VSM initiative“We placed a focus on the business andtransforming how we work ﬁrst and foremost.
We used that as a catalyst to begin to drive agility
through the organization — speed of decision
making, clarity of focus on purpose, showingthat we can deliver incremental value — without
forgoing the larger picture.”
David Paine, Domain Information Office Toyota
Financial Services

5Company Experience with Agile
How long has your company been practicing agile?

How many of your company’s teams have adopted
agile practices?

4% Don’t know
<1 year 7%
2% Not practicing agile

3% NoneAll

1-2 years

52%

18%

22%

32%

5+ years
Less than half

33%

46%
34%

More than half

3-5 years

65%
94%

report their company
is practicing Agile.

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

say their company has significant
experience with Agile.

Over half of respondents (52%)
say either a majority or all of theircompany’s teams have adopted Agile.

6Company Experience with Agile
Which areas of your organization have adopted
Agile principles and practices?

How do you see the distribution of your Agile
team changing post-COVID-19?

*Respondents were able to select multiple responses to this question.

86%

Software development

63%

IT

29%

Operations

17%

Marketing17%

We’ve always been remoteand expect to remain remote16%
We’ll be back in the office on aregular basis but not full time

Security

16%

Sales/Sales Ops

10%

Finance10%Hardware development

2%

56%

25%

We went remote during
COVID-19 and expect toremain remote

Human Resources

11%

6%

3%

We’ll be back in theoﬃce full time

Other
None

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

Multiple industry studies have shown a growth in distributed teams.
This survey indicates that 89% of teams are geographically distributed.
Remote work isn’t just a temporary trend during COVID-19 — a mere
3% say they will be back in the office all of the time after COVID-19.
7

Agile Adoption
Supported by shifts
toward value stream
management andbusiness agility, survey
respondents indicate
their organizations are
now better able
to meet their agiletransformation
goals based on theircontinued adoption of
agile practices.
The two most urgent reasonsfor adopting Agile are thespeed and flexibility requiredby working environmentsthat continue to be both
unpredictable and volatile.
These are closely followed
by a continued need to focus
on alignment across teams
to streamline the softwaredelivery process.

What were the most important reasons for adopting Agile within your team or organization?
*Respondents were able to select multiple responses to this question.

64%

Enhance ability to manage changing priorities

64%

Accelerate software delivery

47%

Increase team productivity

47%

Improve business and IT alignment

42%

Enhance software quality

41%

Enhance delivery predictability

40%

Improve project visibility

39%

Reduce project risk

39%

Better respond to volatile market conditions

35%

Improve team morale

24%

Improve engineering discipline

STATE OF AGILE LOOK BACK

24%

Better manage distributed teams

23%

Reduce project cost

20%

Increase software maintainability

The reasons organizations want toadopt Agile remain unchanged forseveral years. However, we haveseen an increase in their ability tomeet those goals, particularly as
DevOps and agile practices expand
across the organization.

5%
Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

Other

8

Agile Adoption
Business and IT alignment and visibility across agile teams werehighlighted as key to leading agile adoption. 2/3 of respondents
identified management, visibility, and alignment as receiving thestrongest positive impact from adopting agile approaches.

When assessing the metrics organizations use to determine agiletransformation success, the survey shows three in five respondents
look to externally focused measures of success.

Has the implementation of agile positively impacted
each of the following areas within your company?

How does your organization measure success ofAgile transformations?

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile ReportManaging changing priorities

70%

59%

Customer/user satisfaction

Visibility

70%

58%

Business value

Business/IT alignment

66%

50%

Business objectives achieved

Delivery speed/time to market

64%

48%

On-time delivery

Team productivity

60%

48%

Quality

Team morale

60%

41%

Productivity

Managing distributed teams

52%

41%

Organizational culture/morale

Predicitability

51%

39%

Process improvement

Risk reduction

49%

37%

Predictability

Software quality

45%

30%

Project visibility

Engineering discipine

45%

19%

Product scope

Software maintainability

35%

10%

Cost reduction

23%

4%

Don’t know
Other
9

Agile Adoption
How does your organization measure the success of Agile delivery?
Business value delivered

49%

Customer/user satisfaction

49%
45%

Velocity
Planned vs. actual stories per iteration

35%
31%

Team morale

30%

Budget vs. actual cost

29%

Cycle time

28%

Defects into production

26%

Planned vs. actual release dates
Iteration burndown

25%

Defects over time

25%
23%

Burn-up chart
WIP (Work in Progress)

21%
20%

Release burndown

19%

Defect resolution
Customer retention

18%

Agile delivery success is focused on
external measures, with almost half

Estimation accuracy

15%

of respondents focused on business

Revenue sales impact

15%

value delivered 49% and customer

Earned value

13%

Cumulative flow chart

13%

Product utilization

12%

Test pass/fail over time

12%
11%

Scope change in a release
Individual hours per iteration/week

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Reportsatisfaction 49%. Additionally,

delivery velocity 45% is seen as

an equally important measure of
Agile success.

9%10Agile Challenges“The future requires agile at scale, being
able to achieve DevOps, being able toachieve flow, have everybody operatingwith an agile mindset, having the leaders
understand that this is a new way ofworking — they need to get it.”
Dean Leffingwell, Co-founderand Chief Methodologist of
Scaled Agile

Organizations face a variety ofchallenges as they introduce
agile techniques, practices,and tools.
In fact, 30% of respondents
identified no fewer than ten
different challenges faced while
adopting Agile.

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

The most significant Agile adoption barriers
include:• Inconsistencies in processes andpractices 46%• Cultural clashes 43%• General organizational resistance tochange 42%• Lack of skills and experience 42%• Absence of leadership participation 41%• Inadequate management support andsponsorship 40%
The key challenges organizations facewhen adopting Agile have remained largely
unchanged for the past several years.
Challenges with organizational culture,
resistance to change, and lack of supportand skills continue to be problems.

11Agile Challenges
What are the most signiﬁcant barriers to adopting and scaling Agile practices in your current organization?

46%

Inconsistent processes and practices across teams

43%

Organizational culture at odds with agile values

42%

General organization resistence to change

42%

Lack of skills/experience with agile methods

41%

Not enough leadership participation

40%

Inadequate management support and sponsorship

35%

Insufficient training and education

35%

Pervasiveness of traditional development methods

31%

Lack of business/customer/product30%

Fragmented tooling and project related data/measurements

22%

Unwilling to admit mistakes and learn from delivery failure

17%

Minimal collaboration and knowledge pairing

13%

Regulatory compliance or
government issue

7%

Don’t know

5%

Other

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

STATE OF AGILE LOOK BACK

Organizational culture and Agile values
are becoming more aligned. A few years
ago, more than 8 out of 10 respondents
identified culture as a significant barrier toAgile adoption. That number now stands
at slightly more than 4 in 10.

12Agile Techniques and Maturity
The survey once again highlighted Scrum as the most popular Agile
approach with 66% identifying it as the methodology they follow
most closely, with an additional 15% who follow derivations of Scrum(ScrumBan 9% and Scrum/XP 6%).

In terms of agile techniques and practices, at least
four out of five respondents cited:• Daily standups 87%,
• Retrospectives 83%, andWhich Agile methodology do you follow most closely at
the team level?

• Sprint/iteration planning 83%
were used.

Scrum/XP Hybrid
ScrumBanIn addition:

Kanban4% Iterative
1% Extreme Programming (XP)
1% Lean Startup

6%
6%
9%
5%

Other

• Kanban boards 77%,
• Task boards 67%, and• Spreadsheets 66% are all
widely used for agile planning.

2% Don’t know

66%
Scrum

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report13Agile Techniques and Maturity
STATE OF AGILE LOOK BACKOver the years, the State of Agile survey
determined “practices used” as an indication of
the maturity of Agile adoption. Most notably, we
have seen the use of Scrum increase from 40%of respondents in the first survey to 66% in themost recent. Other approaches such as extreme
programming (XP) dropped from use by almost aquarter of respondents to less than 1% today.
In contrast, the use of specific individual Agile techniques andpractices remained relatively constant across the surveys. Key
activities including daily standups and retrospectives have been at theheart of agile approaches, supported by sprint planning and reviews.
Perhaps the most significant growth trend has been the use of kanbanboards for workflow management and visualization. This approach is
now used by 61% of respondents, steadily increasing from 6% in thefirst survey.

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

14

Agile Techniques and Maturity
Almost nine in 10 respondents use daily standups while over four infive use retrospectives and sprint/iteration planning.

3/4 of respondents say they use kanban boards while 2/3 use

Which of the following Agile techniques and practices
does your organization use?

Which Agile planning and delivery tools do you
currently use?

Daily standup

77%

Kanban Board

67%

Taskboard

66%

Spreadsheet

64%

Agile Project Management Tool

Retrospectives

83%

Sprint/Iteration planning

83%

Sprint/iteration reviews

81%

62%

Bug Tracker

Short iterations

63%

62%

Wiki

Kanban61%

58%

Product Roadmapping

54%

Automated Build Tool

Planning Poker/Team Estimation

58%

54%

Unit Test Tool

Dedicated customer/product owner

56%

53%

Continuous Integration Tool51%

Wireframes

47%

Release/Deployment Automation Tool

43%

Requirements Management Tool

43%

Traditional Product Management Tool

39%

Product and Portfolio Management (PPM) Tool

37%

Static Analysis

36%

Story Mapping Tool

Release planning

54%

Product roadmapping

52%

Single team

51%

Frequent releases

51%

Story mapping

40%

Agile Portfolio planning

32%

35%

Automated Acceptance Test Tool

Common work area

24%

29%

Timecards

24%

Refactoring Tool

19%

Index Cards

18%

Customer Idea Management Tool

Agile/Lean UX
OtherDigital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report87%

taskboards and spreadsheets.

23%
3%

15

Scaling Agile“I would say that the number one
challenge facing capital ‘A’ Agile today is
a lack of awareness of systems thinking.
And the fact that we have all these teams
and organizations who have adopted agile
and agile frameworks, be it Scrum or SAFe
or XP, are doing so in one part of thesystem.”Evan Leybourn, CEO and Founder Business
Agility Institute“With respect to software development,
I think at the team level agile is widelypracticed It’s the dominant form of
how teams organize. In many IT teams,
the alignment to business outcomes is
missing.”
Dave West, CEO at Scrum.org

Which framework does your organization follow tohelp scale Agile?
While a wide range of scaling
frameworks are in use, theScaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)continues to be the most popularwith 37% of respondents
identifying it as the framework
they most closely follow. SAFe®
significantly outdistances the next
nearest scaling method, Scrum@
Scale/Scrum of Scrums (9%).
Over the last several years, there
has been increasing awarenessof both the opportunities andchallenges oﬀered by scaling
Agile practices across theorganization. Initially, scaling
agile was addressed through a“Scrum of Scrums” approach.
Over the past five surveys, wehave seen the use of SAFe®
grow significantly to become thedominant approach, in use by
more than a third of respondents.

37%

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)

9%

Scrum@Scale/Scrum of Scrums

6%Enterprise Scrum

5%

Spotify Model

3%

Agile Portfolio Management (APM)

3%

Disciplined Agile (DA)3%

Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

3%

Nexus

2%

Lean Management

1%

Recipes for Agile Governance in the Enterprise (RAGE)

19%
8%

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

Don’t know
Other

16

Agile Tooling
Agile practitioners rely on a wide variety of tools to support Agile techniques and practices. However, the survey
indicated that two tools, Atlassian Jira (81%) and Digital.ai Agility (70%), were the most highly recommended tocolleagues by their users.
Based on your experience using agile planning tools, which ones would you recommend to someone else?
*Respondents were able to select multiple responses to this question.

81%

Atlassian Jira70%

Digital.ai Agility (formerly VersionOne)

66%

Azure DevOps

62%

Broadcom Rally (CA Agile Central)

59%

Trello52%

Atlassian Jira Align

48%

Google Docs

43%

Targetprocess

40%

LeanKit39%

IBM Rational Team Concert

38%

HP Agile Manager

35%

Azure DevOps Server (Microsoft TFS)

35%

Microsoft Project34%

Bugzilla32%

Microsoft Excel

31%

Pivotal Tracker

28%

HP Quality Center/ALM

25%

Hansoft

21%

Digital.ai TeamForge (CollabNet TeamForge)

20%

In-house/home-grown

10%

Axosoft

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

STATE OF AGILE LOOK BACKFrom the earliest days of the State of Agile
survey, tool support has been a key component
determining the success of Agile.
A varied collection of tools is employed, ranging
from generic planning and management tools(e.g., Microsoft Office) to specialized commercial
oﬀerings.
In the past few years, Atlassian Jira andDigital.ai Agility have seen the highest
percentage of recommendations from theirusers.

17

DevOps Initiatives“I think you would struggle to become a digital enterprise
without using Agile and DevOps.”
Helen Beal, Chief Ambassador DevOps Institute and Chair of
the Value Stream Management Consortium

Broad organizational recognition and acceptanceof DevOps continues to grow. In the current
survey, 75% of respondents indicate DevOps isimportant or very important to their organization
with only 9% stating it has no importance.

With 74% of respondents stating they either
have a current DevOps initiative or are planningone, DevOps maintains a steady strong level ofinvestment.
Do you have a DevOps initiative currently in process?
No DevOps
initiatives

DevOpsinitiative
currently
underway

Not important

Don’t know

13%

56%

Very important

13%

18%

How important is DevOps within your organization?

9%

Somewhat
important

16%

Planninga DevOps
initiative

STATE OF AGILE LOOK BACKThe interest in DevOps has been a notable

44%

trend throughout the past few editions of
this survey. Over the past four years, thepercentage of companies who consider

Important

31%

DevOps transformation “Very Important”
has continued to increase (33% to 42%)while those who believe DevOps to be“Somewhat Important” or “Not Important”
has decreased (35% to 25%).

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report18

Improving DevOps Success
DevOps helps increase software delivery frequency and reliability while reducing bugs in production.
Accelerating software delivery and improving quality are shown to be the top measures of success for
DevOps transformation initiatives.

2/3 of respondents say accelerated delivery speed is the most critical measure of success for their
DevOps transformation initiatives while three in five say it is improved quality.

What are the most critical measures of success for your DevOps
transformation initiatives?

67%

Accelerated delivery speed

61%

Improved quality

47%

Reduce risk

45%

Increased customer satisfaction

43%

Improved relationship between “Dev” and “Ops”

35%

Decreased IT costs

35%

Delivery aligned with business objectives

32%

Increased visibility of flow of value
to users

Over the last several years, delivery speed, improved

28%

Ensure compliance/governancegovernance have steadily increased in importance,

7%
Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report

STATE OF AGILE LOOK BACK

quality, customer satisfaction, and compliance/
reflecting a growing focus on outward-facing metrics

Other

that directly impact customer experience.

19

Value Stream Management“While value streams are a critical aspect of lean methods, it’s acommon misconception that improved efficiency is their primaryobjective. Every value stream’s goal is to deliver the maximum
amount of value to the customer, with the highest possible qualityand delight in the shortest sustainable lead time.”

Which of the following best describes your organization’s
adoption of VSM?

14%

Expanding implementation

7%

Implemented,
not expanding

21%

Currently implementing

14%

Planning to implement in the next 12months23%

Interested, but no near-term plans to implement6%

No interest

15%

Don’t know

Richard Knaster, Chief Scientist, Value Stream Management, Digital.ai

Introduced in last year’s State of Agile survey, value
stream management continues to be an importantfocus for respondents. As defined in the current
study, VSM is a combination of the people, processes,
and technology that maps, optimizes, visualizes,
measures, and governs the flow of business value(delivered by epic, stories, work items) using end-toend enterprise software delivery pipelines spanningfrom idea through development and into production.
Consistent with last year, more than half (56%) of respondents have
implemented or are planning to implement VSM and an additional 23%
report their organization is interested in VSM. This data is consistent
with Gartner research that predicts “By 2023, 70% of organizations willuse value stream management to improve flow in the DevOps pipeline,
leading to faster delivery of customer value.²”² Gartner, Inc.: “2021 Planning Guide for Agile Software Development and DevOps,” 9 October 2020, by analysts Bill Holz, Danny Brian, Peter Hyde, Sean Kenefick, Brad Dayley, Kevin Matheny

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report20About the Survey
The 15th State of Agile survey was conducted
between February and April 2021.
Sponsored by Digital.ai, individuals across a broad
range of industries in the global software development
communities were invited to participate.
A total of 4,182 responses were received with 1,382
complete survey responses collected, analyzed, andprepared into a summary report by Regina Corso
Consulting, an independent survey consultancy.
Unlike previous years, this survey was conductedentirely online due to the global pandemic. To
encourage the widest possible participation, thesurvey was promoted by Digital.ai through a varietyof online channels.

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report21

Demographics
The 15th Annual State of Agile survey reflects the input of Agile
practitioners of all levels, from more than 100 countries, incompanies large and small and across a wide range of domains.
To ensure broad access, all responses were collected online, andthe survey was broadly advertised through social media channels,
website requests, blog postings, and email to relevant curated
mailing lists.
This year, two in five
respondents comefrom companies with1,000 employees orless and ¼ work incompanies with over
20,000 employees.
Despite the changing approach to gathering data and publicizing the survey,
company size has held relatively steady over the past five years, providing aconsistent foundation for the survey.

How many employees are in your entire company?

Over ⅓ of respondents say the software organization in theircompany is between 101 and 1,000 people and ⅓ say it’s lessthan 100 people.

It is notable that over the past several years, respondents
to this survey have consistently been drawn from small,medium, and large software teams.

How many people in your organization (including
contractors) are responsible for planning, developing,
testing, and delivering software?

39%

19%

17%

25%

33%

35%

15%

17%

1-1,000

1,001-5,000

5,001-20,000

Over 20,000

Less than 100

101-1,000

1,001-5,000

Over 5,000

Digital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report22Demographics
Respondents are evenly dispersed across North America, Europe,and the rest of the world.

A majority of respondents (38%) describe themselves as Scrum
Masters or Internal Coaches. This trend has been consistent over the past
several years of the State of Agile survey.

Where are you located?

Which role best describes your current position?

Daily standup

North America

Europe

Asia

39%

37%

14%

6%

South America

Australia/New Zealand

3%

38%

Scrum Master or Internal Coach

14%

Development Leadership

13%

Project/Program Manager

8%

External Consultant/Trainer

7%

Product Manager/Product Owner

6%
4%

C Level Exec

3%

Business Analyst

2%AfricaDigital.ai | 15th State of Agile Report2%

Development Team Member

6%

DevOpsOther
23