What’s your beef with the agile development methodology?

Companies using the agile rapid development methodology are experiencing benefits including quicker return on investment, greater ability to embrace change, better quality and increased productivity. So why aren’t more enterprise organizations adopting the agile process in today’s economy?

According to a recent SearchCIO.com PPM and IT governance survey of 300 IT professionals, only 30% of enterprise users are deploying agile or other rapid deployment methodologies.

One reason for the low adoption rate could be lack of executive support. The agile development methodology is not the type of initiative that is supported from the top down at most companies because executives see it as costly and complex. Instead, it usually starts in with the application development team, which has become more service- and client-oriented in this economy and knows that the agile process allows them to better collaborate and more quickly meet the needs of the business. With its success comes recognition and support from the top.

Another possible reason for agile’s low adoption rate could be the economic recession. CIOs and company executives see the agile development methodology as a huge investment in money, training and resources.

However, some companies, like IBM, have used the recession as a perfect time to adopt agile. During this global recession, IBM transitioned 25,000 of its developers to the agile development methodology as a way to increase productivity and cut costs.

So what’s your reason for not using the agile process? Is it cost, executive support or something else? Whatever your excuse, there’s no denying the benefits of adopting an agile process — even in this poor economy.