How Being Agile Changed Our Human Resources Policies

Abstract

Menlo Innovations adopted agile software development practices in order to build highly effective software development teams that could produce software for Menlo’s clients. As client needs changed during projects, it was often appropriate to change the size of the team working on the project. In order to accommodate the effective integration of new staff, and to remain productive when staffing was reduced, knowledge transfer skills became critical. Menlo found that many of the agile engineering practices, when performed well, form the basis for effective knowledge transfer. What Menlo did not expect was that the flexibility provided by being able to move resources from project to project would ultimately allow the ability to offer creative human resource policies. These policies have resulted in Menlo winning many awards, including the Alfred P Sloan Award for Workforce Flexibility.