How would the Agile Research Network work with my organisation?

The Agile Research Network focus on issues and challenges that real organisations are currently dealing with and works individually with each collaboration partner for 3-6 month.During an initial collaboration kick-off phase, you will discuss your challenge with the research team and set up and collaboration agreement.

In the investigation of focus area phase, you will work closely with the research team to scope and define your specific problem in detail. During this phase, researchers usually spend some time at the organisation. Researchers’ activities can include observation and interviews to get a better understanding of the challenge. Once an understanding of the challenge is established the research team will survey existing research in the problem area, summarise it and present suggestions to address your specific situation. At this stage, you will decide whether to adopt any of the suggestions.

In the implementation phase the research team will facilitate the implementation of alternative ways of working and evaluate the results during the evaluation phase.

The benefit to you is that you will receive a confidential report about the work undertaken and specific details of the resulting analysis and recommendations. The benefit to the research team and the wider community will be that the research team will produce an anonymised white paper and a research paper from each research project, summarising our findings and contributing to research in the Agile field.

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What are the benefits of collaborating with the Agile Research Network?

The researchers of the Agile Research Network will provide your organisation with an analysis of the challenge you are facing and will structure that challenge. You will also receive a summary of suggestions for improvement based on existing literature and research and an unbiased perspective (we are not trying to sell any approach, tool or practice) on which suggestions to adopt. Furthermore, the Agile Research Network will evaluate the changes you decide to implement. Overall the whole approach provides an opportunity to reflect and to learn about different perspectives on the challenge.

Other outcomes:

For each case study the Agile Research Network produces a white paper and a research paper. The papers are anonymised unless the collaborating partner would like to be named.

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What other collaborators say about working with the Agile Research Network?

“It’s early days yet but we’re really pleased to be working with the Agile Research Network. It can be difficult to get an objective view of day-to-day working, but we can already see that, because Agile Research Network have been in to talk to us, people are sharing more information about the problem than they did before.”

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For how long would the collaboration be for?

Usually the organisations and the Agile Research Network agree to collaborate for 3-6 month.

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What does my organisation need to provide?

1. A main point of contact within your organisation, a champion for the research team’s engagement, who will support the team and facilitate access to relevant people.
2. An initial problem statement about the area to be investigated. This can be developed jointly, but you should see it as a challenging area you would like to address.
3. Ongoing engagement with the research team to help investigate the area, identify suitable improvements, apply and evaluate agreed improvements, and to develop a new research agenda where existing research does not provide sufficient information.
4. An agreed timeframe with clear objectives and deliverables.
5. Travel and accommodation expenses to support the team on site visits. Researchers’ salaries will be paid by the Universities and the Agile Business Consortium.

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