Helping Organizations Improve Development Processes
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) brings the software development team together with the business to ensure reliable and predictable delivery of the only thing that really matters: business value.
Northwest Cadence process consultants are different. We don’t chase fads or subject you to meaningless certifications. We know one size doesn’t fit all. We don’t just explain how to follow good development practices, we help you understand why they work so you can make them work for you.
Agile
Agility is now the mainstream software development process, because it recognizes the demands of delivery in today’s marketplace. Whether it’s responding to a customer’s evolving needs or seizing a new market opportunity, you need to adapt to change quickly without sacrificing quality or focus.
Many teams’ adoption challenges trace back to difficulties with basic agile concepts, not specific methodologies. No matter which agile path you choose, we can shed light on its underlying principles and time-tested practices to make your implementation a success.
Scrum
Most teams don’t come to agile from Waterfall; most never had a well-defined process to begin with! Scrum provides comprehensive, proven practices and offers a quick start.
Whether you need advice, training, certification, mentoring, or an experienced Scrum Master to help kick your adoption into high gear, we have the depth of experience and leadership in the Scrum community to deliver measurable results right away and, more importantly, position you to sustain and improve your improvements.
Lean
Lean principles aren’t new to software professionals; they’re at the heart of agile, Scrum, and other iterative methodologies explored over the years. The emerging interest in Lean in business management offers a new opportunity to align IT with organizational goals, from ops to CEO and all the levels in between, and build the support you need from your leadership.
At Northwest Cadence, our consultants don’t blindly follow checklists: we dig deep into the history and theory of successful practices across industries. Whatever methodology you choose, it’s likely that Lean thinking informed it or aligns with it; we can help you bring your entire organization on board.
Kanban
Not every team wants or needs a radical transformation. Kanban promotes incremental change through inspection of an existing process and team-directed problem solving. Whether on its own or as a hybrid with other methodologies (e.g., Scrum-ban), Kanban offers teams a flexible, empowering process with the potential for high productivity gains.
Northwest Cadence consultants are thought leaders in the marriage of software process and Kanban. We understand that self-directed process improvement still demands leadership and guidance during periods of change, especially initial adoption. We can help you target initial improvement opportunities and build your team’s confidence to tackle the process road ahead.
