In my post The Case for An Agile Fringe I mentioned two current fringe areas that I thought were interesting: Real Options; and Agile+CMMI. I don't want folks to think this list is exhaustive. Two more areas that I see current interest and activity building are agile for embedded systems, and agile contracts.

I've been asked by several people in recent months who work for companies that make physical products that contain significant portions of software, about how agile practices can be applied in their field. Some folks are responding to this demand. I would expect some of that to emerge in 2009 in publications and presentations. So I'm predicting the emergence of an agile for embedded systems movement next year.

I'm also seeing a lot of work on developing agile working relationships between client IT and technology companies and outsource development vendors. Until now the agile contracts literature has been fairly thin and based mainly on thought experiments. I'm actively seeing consulting and outsource firms offering agile ways of working and interacting to their clients, for example, Valtech have an offering they call Software on Demand. I am also seeing significant users of outsource/offshore development demanding more agility from their suppliers and writing contracts requiring an agile way of working and interacting. In the language of the Software Engineering Institute, we are now seeing agile penetrate into the field of Supplier Agreement Management and Software Acquisition. I fully expect case studies and more literature to appear in this field in 2009.

What else are you working on that might be considered fringe? Technorati tag: Agile+2009, Agile+Fringe, David+Anderson, SEI, Carnegie+Mellon, CMMI, embedded+systems, software+engineering