Life Goes On Without Agile Market Data

Over the past few years, I've been asked repeatedly for market data on Agile development. How big is the Agile market? What is its potential size? What is the penetration of Agile processes? Unfortunately, my response has been and still remains the same: "No one really knows, and if you find someone purporting to have the data, don't trust it." With so many supporters in the IT, software vendor, and consulting communities, many of whom would benefit from this data, why would these answers be so difficult to derive?  The answer is actually quite simple. Agile practitioners are themselves quite Agile. The definitions of what they do, when and where they do it, and how well they do, are continually in flux. Sizing a market that can't be bounded is an exercise in futility. Of course, there are those who rely on market data in order to launch or grow their businesses. But for the majority of Agile developers and managers, the data will not be relevant and should certainly not be a barrier to progress. Rather, Agile teams should absorb the wealth of Agile experiences that are being shared in the industry (i.e., qualitative factors) and not waste their time looking for hard data.  

Over the past few years, I've been asked repeatedly for market data on Agile development. How big is the Agile market? What is its potential size? What is the penetration of Agile processes? Unfortunately, my response has been and still remains the same: "No one really knows, and if you find someone purporting to have the data, don't trust it." With so many supporters in the IT, software vendor, and consulting communities, many of whom would benefit from this data, why would these answers be so difficult to derive?  The answer is actually quite simple. Agile practitioners are themselves quite Agile. The definitions of what they do, when and where they do it, and how well they do, are continually in flux. Sizing a market that can't be bounded is an exercise in futility. Of course, there are those who rely on market data in order to launch or grow their businesses. But for the majority of Agile developers and managers, the data will not be relevant and should certainly not be a barrier to progress. Rather, Agile teams should absorb the wealth of Agile experiences that are being shared in the industry (i.e., qualitative factors) and not waste their time looking for hard data.  

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