We are leaving the "last responsible moment" for a while. This month we start a discussion of Feature Injection, an analysis process based on real options and Kolb's circle of learning. The first episode ( of five ) introduces the "Information Arrival Processes.

The current economic downturn is a new test for Agile, until now Agile has been promoted in a growing economy. Proponents of Agile have emphasized how it improve competitive advantage and helps a company out-compete its rivals.

Now companies are concerned with simple survival. Today's managers are concerned with cutting costs, improving cashflow and managing without credit. Organizational change and process improvement are not top of the agenda. Promoting Agile in this environment is something new.

Scrum has become the most popular exponent of agile software development frameworks. Organizations-and those developing software, in particular-are drawn to Scrum for many reasons. They include its capacity to mitigate risk, facilitate frequent communication, reduce cycle time and cost, and deliver the right products to customers. From a managerial standpoint, Scrum's most appealing attribute is its ability to boost productivity through autonomous, hyper-performing teams.

Agile is a development strategy that we have worked with for a number of years now. Lately, we've been getting a lot of questions from clients along the lines of: "I've got a project, I want to globally source it, can I use Agile Development?"

Well, that depends.