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Clarus expands as demand for “Scrum” explodes in NZ



Clarus expands as demand for “Scrum” explodes in NZ

Press release, 30 March 2011, Clarus Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand:


IT consulting firm, Clarus Ltd, has had to recruit four new staff to cope with the unprecedented demand from some of New Zealand’s largest innovators and manufacturers for assistance with Agile adoption and Scrum certification. New Zealand companies including Trimble, Allied Telesis Labs NZ, Zeacom, Serato, and Commtest are adopting Scrum to both improve project delivery and predictability, and to increase team collaboration.

“Agile product development approaches such as ‘Scrum’ are being credited for increasing the likelihood of project success with delivery on time and to budget, and for mitigating delays and crisis points that can lead to project failure,” says Edwin Dando, Managing Director of Clarus.

“A year ago many companies were making quick cutbacks to survive the recession crisis. Now they are taking the longer term view, fixing internal processes, introducing lean initiatives and investing in technologies to lay the infrastructure for future growth. Scrum delivers huge business value from the outset and is instrumental in increasing the success rates of these projects. We are seeing increasing demand for Scrum in New Zealand and expect 2011 to be a very busy year helping clients to accomplish some ambitious goals.”

Navigation and positioning systems solution provider Trimble is one of the many local companies that Clarus has helped to adopt the Scrum framework.

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Jeff Tait, Trimble Office Product Manager says, “The benefits of adopting Scrum were immediate, and our ability to deliver products and mitigate risks significantly increased. By simply building and delivering the right solution the first time, we are now making very significant savings. The experience and professionalism of Clarus’ Scrum training was pivotal to our successful adoption of Scrum and has provided massive value for money.”

Trimble Engineering Team Leader Raymond Wilson adds, “The best thing about using Scrum is total understanding of team objectives and precise tracking of progress against those objectives. We can see results immediately and rectify any issues that arise before they become a real problem.”

Agile has officially overtaken the traditional “Waterfall” approach in software development circles, and with over 84% of Agile teams adopting Scrum, it is quickly becoming the world standard. A number of well known global corporates have been using Scrum as a competitive advantage – the Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has over 900 Scrum team members, and the UK’s BBC reportedly has 1200 ScrumMasters on staff.

“The traditional way of developing software often leads to large specifications that are rarely read, products that don’t meet stakeholder needs, and horrendous project overruns. The difference with the Scrum process is that it is based on complete transparency and the incremental delivery of features in order of business priority,” says Dando.

To meet the increased demand, Clarus has recruited Sandy Purvis, Business Analyst; Jason Lai, Software Tester; Kate Shamy, Associate Manager; and Mike Styring, Business Development Manager. This brings the Clarus team to 11.

Clarus has been offering the courses in New Zealand since 2006 and is one of only a handful of New Zealand businesses with both the certifications and hands-on practical experience of applying the methodology to real world situations.

Last year Clarus lead the project to move the Christchurch City Council data centre in one of the largest IT outsourcing projects ever in the South Island: 250 servers and 2800 users. With enormous time pressures and huge risk, the council asked Clarus to help ensure the project would achieve a seamless transition.

Clarus and Dr Jeff Sutherland, the co-inventor of Scrum and founder of the Scrum Training Institute, presented Scrum courses in Wellington, 28 February-1 March, and Auckland, 3-4 March.

Sutherland presents the course material all over the world, often for global leaders such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Yahoo, Palm and Siemens. Clarus is Sutherland’s exclusive New Zealand Scrum partner.


ends

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