9 Agile Statistics That Actually Empower Teams

If you’re interested in project management, you’ll know that integrating Agile workflows into enterprises is still all the rage.

The need for agility was only intensified by the challenges COVID-19 presents. Collaborating remotely made us flex our agile muscles more than ever.

With the vast majority of enterprises embracing agile, the benefits are clear. The numbers never lie. No matter how far along you are in scaling agile, the agile statistics below will undoubtedly confirm you are on the right path.

We’ve compiled a list of 8 (secretly 9) agile statistics you don’t want to miss.

Can you handle the suspense?

Learn what fascinating agile statistics we’ve come across recently:

1. 93% of business units that had fully adopted an agile model before the current pandemic did better than business units that hadn’t.

The world has changed since COVID-19 presented us all with unexpected challenges. In his welcome keynote address at the Global SAFe Summit 2020, Scaled Agile, Inc. CEO, Chris James, shared the following slide, showing that well-implemented agile practices work:

The world has changed since COVID-19
Source: Global SAFe Summit 2020 welcome keynote, 2020

2. With 84%, agile teams still vastly prefer Scrum as their approach.

Other popular approaches include Kanban, DevOps, Lean and Design Thinking. (Status Quo (Scaled) Agile 2020, Hochschule Koblenz, 2020)

3. The Agile movement began in 2001 within software development.

Much has changed in 20 years: Agile is now spreading rapidly to all types and parts of organizations. Capterra provides a great overview with current user demographics:

Capterra provides a great overview with current user demographics
Source: Agile Project Management Software User Report: 2020, Capterra, 2020
What about marketeers? Are they adopting Agile en masse?

4. According to Agile Sherpas, marketers’ interest in Agile is stronger than ever. 41% of marketers report currently using Agile and, of non-users, 42% plan to adopt it.

Of these, the vast majority would like to do so in the next year. (3rd Annual State of Agile Marketing Report, Agile Sherpas, 2020)

5. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is here to stay!

VSM enables you to identify waste, reduce process cycle time, and implement process improvements.

In the 14th annual State of Agile report, 78% of respondents said that their organizations have an interest in VSM, are planning to implement VSM, or are currently in some stage of VSM implementation.

14th annual State of Agile report
Source: 14th annual State of Agile report.

6. 54% of respondents that used scaling said they used SAFe.

SAFe continues to be the most popular framework for scaling agile.
A survey of over 600 participants from over 20 countries, conducted by Dr. Ayelt Komus and his team at Koblenz University, found that (Status Quo (Scaled) Agile 2020, Hochschule Koblenz, 2020)

When asked what businesses want from Agile, the most frequent answer is speed.

7.  In the KPMG Global Agile Survey 2019, over 68% of organisations state faster product delivery as one of their key drivers for agility.

How does becoming a truly agile organization influence the role of senior executives?

8. Harvard Business Review found that by the end of the transition to agile, CEO’s spend four times the amount of time on strategy (10% -> 40%), while spending less time on operations management (60% -> 25%). (Harvard Business Review, 2020)

Did all these statistics make your agile heart beat faster?

Then read on for one more statistic that we at Targetprocess found very interesting.

Capterra asked their survey respondents how many agile project management products they demoed before making their final purchase decision. (Agile Project Management Software User Report: 2020). While most demoed just 2, 38% of respondents demoed 3 or more.

Are you looking for an agile project management tool for your enterprise? Don’t forget to put us on your short list, and request a live product demo!

Looking at all the agile statistics, we can safely say agile is here to stay. How far along the way of becoming fully agile are you? Are there any agile statistics you’d like to share with us? Leave a comment or hit any of our social media buttons to let us know!

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