Industry barometer ON "AGILE IN AUTOMOTIVE. S/O PRACTICE"

Five years after the hype. In the meantime, most car makers and suppliers have gained first-hand experience in the use of agile methods, and numerous initiatives have been launched. How have agile approaches changed the work in development units, in which engineering disciplines have agile approaches been able to establish themselves?

Agile approaches found their way into many areas, in software development, but also in hardware and mechanics. From individual pilots in courageous teams, there are now companies that are testing agile approaches up to the portfolio level. Agility in the supply chain is now an intensely debated topic on the agenda as well.

The users surveyed still perceive corporate culture (70%) as a major threshold: lack of management support (46%) or little willingness to try out new things (65%).

Surprising: The majority of even experienced agilists still do not believe that agile approaches can be combined with Automotive SPICE®, functional safety or even cybersecurity. To counter these prejudices, we have dedicated a detailed chapter to the integration of agile approaches with these regulations: Yes, you can.

Scrum – the method of choice? Certainly not. Automotive companies and their suppliers now use a whole range of agile development processes. They consider the entire spectrum of agile options and consciously pick the processes and methods that are most likely to work in any given situation. We know this from a survey we conducted called Agile Automotive. State of Practice.

Agility has been a huge success in the automotive industry. Yet not long ago, agile development processes, methods and practices were dismissed in regulated vehicle development. But in the meantime, the industry has to a certain extent matured in its ability to pick the right agile methods. In addition to classic methods such as Scrum and Kanban, the proponents of agile practices now consciously pick the development method that is most likely to work for them.

State of Practice 2014, our survey on agile methodology in the automotive industry, found that more and more people are turning to agile methods and practices. After initial successes, on average the surveyed manufacturers and suppliers started using agile methods like Scrum, XP and Kanban in the second half of 2011. Their aim was to make development processes more efficient and manage complexity.

“It’s different in the automotive industry. Agile methods don’t work here.” This was a widely held opinion, but a myth. This recent industry survey – Agile in Automotive. State of Practice – exposed such statements as an excuse. According to the survey of managers working for OEMs and leading suppliers, on average agile development methods have already been in use for 39 months. One third of companies have already completed roll-out and piloting.

The survey respondents included managers from Germany and the USA with responsibility for distributed development projects in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

It was surprising to find that agile methods have become more popular in serial production (89%) rather than research. The respondents are much less likely to use Scrum or Kanban in pilot production (pre-series) or R&D (44% and 11% respectively). These methods are used for all kinds of control units, and equally in the development of braking units and driver assistance systems.

• Vehicle electronics 45%
• Multimedia applications 39%
• Connectivity and integrated services 38%
• Power train controls 33%

People working in everyday vehicle development are willing to adapt agile methods to their specific requirements. This is best seen by looking at what they do with Scrum: 83% of users organise daily stand-ups, but only 39% employ user stories. Just under two thirds of the surveyed companies use Scrum Masters to support agile teams.

Key factors when introducing agile methods are backing from management, communication and being given the freedom to try out new things.