Today, on my way back from Sweden, I stopped in the
Netherlands to visit Tricode, our strategic partner. On the way from the airport
we’ve chatted as always, and I realized that they started to implement scrum as
well in their projects. This is not the first (not the second and even not the
10th) GigaSpaces’ partner who’s adopting scrum, directly influenced by
GigaSapces. As our product development is being done with Scrum.
I wonder why is that, what makes them adopt scrum?
Well, it is optional that it has nothing to do with GigaSpaces.
Scrum is a popular agile methodology and coincidently we use scrum as other
organizations. This may very well be the case, but I doubt that.
When asking some deeper questions, it appears that the level
of service GigaSpaces’ partners and customers are getting because we are able
to respond quickly to on-going requirements and the fact that our early access
program allows our partners to influence a product release while it’s in the
making is perceived as a great advantage. This opens a whole new game of
collaboration between the software vendor (GigaSpaces in this case) and our partners
and customers. They are now part of the team. I believe this is the level of
cooperation and participation any product team would like to be able to provide
to its end users, and so do they. I think (humbly) that this is the main reason
for the aforementioned question.
Furthermore, it opens a whole new discussion channel between
us. We not only speak about the functionality provided by our product, we also
share experiences and advices on scrum implementation. This is the great part
of being a development team which creates a product that other development
teams use.
It is truly a great feeling. We’re adding value not just by
delivering our product per se. We also create a lot of value by incorporating
our customers and partners into our development process, and by sharing
experiences and helping each other out.
I may very well be wrong with my conclusion, but it does
feel good!