[First published at moduscooperandi.com in a slightly different form]

At David J Anderson & Associates our strategy is to help clients achieve long lasting, institutionalized, enterprise scale agile change. We help them to become what the SEI calls a "high maturity" organization while continuing to use Agile and Lean methods throughout their technology functions. To achieve this we go about changing the organization's culture. Lasting change takes time. To do it properly can take 9 months to several years. It requires a serious commitment to achieving high maturity - quantitative management, predictability and continuous improvement - from the senior leadership. That's why many of our clients have C-level titles.

However, not every client needs long term institutional change. So should we turn those other clients away? Perhaps! But not if they truly need us to meet their immediate, tactical goals. I've been amazed by the clients we meet who open up the discussion with "I've been reading your ... <insert book, article, etc.> and I've decided that the solution to our current problems is... <insert methodology FDD, MSF CMMI, Kanban>."

I've been amazed at the demand for FDD and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. By adding Daniel Vacanti and Eric Willeke who can help us deliver FDD and MSF CMMI projects, we have the skills and experience to respond to demand and provide staff augmentation when necessary.

With these types of clients they have an immediate tactical need. Perhaps they have a mission critical project that is late and over-budget. They need us to dig them out of the hole. So we do that for them. Their need is tactical. They are not concerned about institutionalized change. They are not concerned about resistance to change. They will use positional power and require staff to acquiesce or drop out. Delivery of the project is success for them. And if the process doesn't survive past the delivery of the project then so be it. Technorati tag: David+Anderson, agile+management, CMMI, FDD, Kanban, MSF