Agile tool survey results
The questions used in the tool usage survey covered the type of development teams, the Agile methods used, the tools used, benefits and drawbacks of the tools used, as well as various comments. The survey included a question regarding the company name to ensure elimination of duplicate responses. The survey participants were also given the option to leave an email address in order to be contacted with the eventual survey results. The actual questions used for the tool usage survey conducted during our research can be founded in our previouse post Feb 11, 2010 Agile Tool Survey .
The survey was taken by 100 representatives of different companies using Agile methods. Survey responses originated from companies in 35 countries, including United Kingdom. Sweden, Egypt, United States, France, Canada, India, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Malaysia, Brazil, Netherlands, Romania, Italy, Australia, Germany.
A pie chart displaying all the tools used with appropriate percentages is shown in Figure 1. Note that the survey questions made it possible to choose several tools, and most responses included more than one tool. As can be seen from the pie chart, 25% of all responses include physical wall and paper, and 23% include spreadsheets. It is interesting to note that a total of 35 different Agile project management tools were mentioned in the survey results, not counting the different in-house tools.
Figure 1: Tool usage percentages
Figure 2 shows a summary of the responses by categories. The categories consist of Agile project management tools, tangible tools (physical wall and paper), spreadsheets, traditional project management tools (MS Project), and in-house tools. The responses are differentiated by companies with distributed and collocated teams.
Figure 2. Categories of tools used in collocated and distributed teams
Figure 3 presents a Venn diagram showing the percentages of Agile project management tool usage, tangible tool usage, and their overlap, in the case of collocated teams. It is interesting to note that half of all collocated teams using Agile project management tools also use physical walls and paper, despite the fact that most Agile project management tools include a virtual task board meant to replace physical walls.
Figure 3. Overlap percentage of tangible and Agile project management tool usage
Figure 4 and 5 present the most and least satisfactory aspects of the tools used. Note that in many cases the responses included more than one tool. In these cases, the mentioned most and least satisfactory aspects refer to all the tools used in conjunction. It is interesting to note that ease of use is most frequently mentioned as the most satisfactory aspect. One can conclude that this is the most valued aspect, and the combinations of tools are aimed in a manner to increase usability. Lack of integration and lack of custom reports from the majority of the negative aspects mentioned.
Figure 4: Most satisfactory aspects of the tools used
Figure 5: Least satisfactory aspects of the tools used
In general, as can be seen from Figure 6, only 8% of all replies did not mention any negative aspects of the tools in place. This result points towards the fact that the tools used do not adequately support people’s needs and, especially, the needs of company management. Lack of integration with other systems is a negative aspect which could have been predicted. After all, no Agile project management tool can include integration for all possible systems used in all companies using Agile methods. Such integration can only be achieved by means of an in-house tool, which can also include custom reports as well as be adapted to the process in place.
Figure 6. Summary of percentages of mentioned negative aspects
Agile tool usage survey highlights the fact that a large majority of companies adhere to simple tangible tools, and that usability is the most valued aspect of tool usage. Further, the most common problem faced by companies is lack of integration and reports, which are impossible to cover by standardized tools. A detailed analysis of our survey results will be published later.
More information gathered by survey is presented in the figures below:
Figure 7. Teams structure
Figure 8. Agile methods used
Figure 9. methods used separated by companies with distributed and collocated teams
Figure 10. Agile project management tools used across all companies, in both distributed and collocated teams
Figure 11. Percentages of Agile Project Management tools used in the surveyed companies
Thank you for the interesting read, even if it took quite a long time to understand. (English is not my national language) May I ask where you got your sources from? Thankyou! Britteny
One clarification question. In Figure 1, the Rally % is quite low relative to the other non-branded tools (e.g. in-house, project, excel). In Figure 11, Rally is the largest category. Is the difference accounted for by the fact that when you subtract the non-branded tools and only show specific “agile manament” tools, the Rally percentage increases more significantly relative to the others?
Thanks, and good data as always (or at least, 2 out of 2 times, so far)!
What criteria selected your population subset of 100 companies?
How do you believe this subset of the population generalizes to the whole?
What was the sample size? 100 people? or people from 100 companies? If it was people from 100 companies, how many actually responded?
Based on other research and my experience in the market, these numbers do not seem accurate. Although, you do an impressive job of presenting the data and making it easy to understand.
Distributed teams using MS Project and Spreadsheets comes a surprise to me. From my own experience these tools seem to have very little collaborative value unless they are located on top of a version control system and team members can update the documents themselves.
Do you have more information regarding the distributed teams: are some of them outsourced teams, or mixed in-house and outsourced, or are they all geographically dispersed in-house teams. Data like this could be very interesting (well to me at least).
Great survey though, keep it up.