Does Agile Foster Innovation?

The Project Management Institute held a conference today called “Project Management Success: A View from the Future”. The keynote speaker, Jim Highsmith, an Agile thought leader and executive consultant at ThoughtWorks, Inc. posted a slide asking the question “Does Agile Foster Innovation?”

The slide referenced these items about the company Salesforce.

• Ranked #1 innovator by Forbes magazine 2011, 2012, 2013
• 5 year average sales growth – 39.5% (2012)
• 5 year average net income growth – 78.7 (2012)
• 140 Agile teams in 2011
• Per Steve Green , VP technology program management
  • Agile 7+ years
  • All in approach (25 teams to start)
  • Other departments (R&D, Operations, Marketing)
  • Over 100,000 automated acceptance tests
  • Steve Green – ” Agile is the foundation of our innovation”

What are your thoughts on this? Do you use Agile methodologies in your company to manage projects? Is your company more or less innovative using Agile methodologies?

Al Senzamici, PMP
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.