agiledatascience

- Yes but not everybody in the business made the transition smoothly

- Business folk found it tough shifting to Agile as an approach after a lifetime of Prince2

- I've successfully used an Agile approach on ALL size and scale of project when it's done right with a good Agile lead on the project.

Agile is becoming more and more common even in larger enterprises

@sardire - for many it's a slow learning process though don't you think? culture and behaviour changes they aren't always comfortalble making..

- Some of the Data Science team worked as long wolves and found hunting in packs a challenge

- Others jumped at it and loved it and make the shift quickly and painlessly

@dez_blanchfield Is Agile your predominant methodology in your data science/app-dev team. How complete is the transition in your org to Agile?

- Results have been mixed but the overall outcome seems be positive if the shift to Agile is kept simple

Our team is using an agile methodology to build in new features to the data platform... and always informed by what our users want and use.

- In an existing environment Agile is often a tough idea and value proposition to convey and inject

- In new projects, Agile is usually in my experience far easier and more comfortable to inject or apply - esp. with younger team members without pre-set ideas about "how we do it here" ;-)

- Results have been mixed but the overall outcome seems be positive if the shift to Agile is kept simple

- Some find it time-consuming & distracting attending all the meetings and stand-ups

- Others also found short-duration iterations stressful and useless or couldn’t change pace

@dez_blanchfield I agree, Dez. Keep it simple.

@sardire Steve: what are the factors that might keep larger orgs from bringing Agile into their data science initiatives? Less tolerance for un/under-documented development? Need for structured processes and audit trails for compliance?

- in every single project or programme of work in Data Science et al, It’s a balancing act between tech / dev / biz culture, people, personalities & experience

@sardire - for a long time it was tough, at least in APAC and Australia, to find good Agile coaches and Agile savvy Data folk, as it's been a DevOps / Dev "thing" for the most part..

@bobehayes Bob: To what extent are users/customers directly engaged in your Agile data science collabs/workstreams?

if larger orgs have a more 'open world' culture and behavior agile will be adopted much easier

we create data environments tooled to foster agile collaboration

Question 3 coming in just a sec. Look at the tops of your screens.

@bobehayes - that's the true value of Agile right, the short sharp sprints and then instant input and feedback from the user / consumer / customer ;-)

Yes, for short term investigations #agiledatascience is useful and a good fit given the short timeline

@joe_caserta - where do you start to inject that sort of thinking Joe, how early do you get it into the conversation, Agile that is, as an idea, a value propositon?

We look at how they use the project (has usage gone up/down since we made the changes?). We also listen to them when we ask for feedback about how we can improve the product. So, both implicit and explicit feedback.

@sardire - amen to that, but at the same time IMHO we as "practitioners" and "thought leaders" have to be savvy to the fact that some times it's a huge leap of faith for orgs to "get Agile" ;-)

@dez_blanchfield What's the primary data scientist habitual behavior they need to "unlearn" to do Agile effectively?

@dez_blanchfield agile coaching has become a common role to transition lone wolf mindset

@8pathsolutions - Jen how do you think Agile works in Medium to Long term projects, I'm finding that short term is ok, medium perhaps, but long term Agile is a tough challenge to "maintain" at times.

@dez_blanchfield How do you measure the effectiveness/results from Agile? Do you report it up to a Chief Data Science Officer in your org? Or, are you that Officer?

@dez_blanchfield @sardire Yes... change is difficult, especially when you're old like me... but all I need to be convinced is some data that tells me what we are building is working (improving user sat and usage).

@joe_caserta - yes you've hit the proverbial nail on the head there mate, I'm finding it as tough to find good Agile Coaches as I am good Data Scientists & Analysts !!

@dez_blanchfield biggest challenge can be keeping 10-min stand-up to 10 min.

@joe_caserta - it's almost like Agile Coaches, good ones, are the new Unicorn ;-)

@8pathsolutions Jennifer: Is Agile less well-suited to longer-running projects than quick-turnaround data-sci modeling/exploration?

@dez_blanchfield Long term projects tend to have more extensive requirements, deadlines, and milestones - In my experience, agile isn't well suited to handle meeting all of these expectations