Agile Exponential Software Organizations

Abstract

In this Interactive Talk we present the concept of exponential organizations and facilitate exponential thinking for agile practitioners. Exponential organizations (ExOs) are organizations whose "impact (or output) is disproportionally large - at least 10x larger - compared to its peers because of the use of new organizational techniques that leverage accelerating technologies." [2, p. 18] (e.g., Google, TED, Uber, Airbnb, Waze, and more, see http://top100.exponentialorgs.com/). ExOs are characterized by ten aspects that are derived from a massive transformative purpose (MTP), which is "the higher, aspirational purpose of the organization" [2, p. 54] (e.g., TED's Ideas worth spreading, Google's Organize the world's information). We demonstrate how agile organizations [1] and lean startups can use ExO thinking to promote both agility and exponential growth. Attendees gain knowledge on how to integrate 1) agility orientation with exponential thinking, and 2) agile development with ExO aspects. In practice, attendees gain experience with exponential thinking for their agile industrial use cases.