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Working at the speed of business – an agile philosophy

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A common challenge for IT departments in today’s business environment is keeping up with the demands of the business. How can we ensure that our client’s data is protected and systems are reliable and available? All the while implementing modifications and upgraded environments in a time frame that doesn’t slow the business down.

To help to address this challenge at Datotel, we’ve adopted an agile philosophy called the Scrum methodology. Scrum is an approach defined by set roles, responsibilities and recurring meetings that don’t change. Through an iterative process focused around sprints, which normally last around two weeks, the Scrum team delivers on defined set of project outcomes on a regular basis.

While initially conceived for the software development industry, we’ve found that the agile methodology behind Scrum applies equally as well to both the project and operational aspects of what we do at Datotel. The general principles of the Scrum methodology are:

  1. Customer satisfaction is the highest priority.
  2. Open to changing requirements, at all stages of the project.
  3. Faster turn-around.
  4. Built on a foundation of teamwork
  5. Full leadership support to provide the team with the environment and support they need to get the job done.
  6. Conveying information to and within a development team via face-to-face conversation.
  7. Measuring progress through working environments and deliverable delivery.
  8. Maintaining a constant pace indefinitely, the Scrum process promotes sustainable development.
  9. Around-the-clock attention to technical excellence and good design.
  10. Ease, the art of “working smarter” is essential.
  11. Self-organizing teams, the best solutions, requirements and designs emerge from this structure.
  12. Adjusting behavior at regular intervals. The team can then reflect on how to become more effective, and fine-tune accordingly.

Ultimately, by using Scrum, we are able to provide our clients:

  • Faster implementation
  • More efficient delivery mechanism
  • Flexibility with regards to change requirements
  • Earlier deployment for parts of the solution
  • Finding problems/blockers early so we can tackle them sooner