In today’s climate, it has become increasingly important for organizations, teams and individuals to be flexible, adaptable and what developers call, ‘agile’ in their work. This year’s EBU DEVCON took a look in more detail at what it means to be agile and what it takes to improve your teams and work.
Presenters from a range of disciplines spoke about how their organizations faced these challenges. From Spotify, Avalpa and Avid to CERN, RTS, BBC and the New York Times, we heard about the different experiences and approaches being taken to become more ‘swift’.
During the event, it also became apparent that software engineering is becoming more essential, especially in the area of broadcasting. However, in-house software developer teams often work in isolation, sometimes duplicating work already being performed elsewhere.
How to break down the ‘silo’ effect?
During the event, speakers from a wide range of companies shared their insights on what makes development teams work, not only in terms of tools, but also in terms of organization. A lot of that has to do with creating the right culture. Terms frequently encountered were agility, openness, and coaching. Brendan Marsh (Spotify) also stressed the importance of daring to fail, because even failing can make everyone better.
At EBU, we have decided to “walk the talk” ourselves and lead by example. The new EBU.IO platform showcases how the Technology & Innovation Community are coming together in the broadcast arena to identify gaps in media technologies, create consensus between broadcasters and the industry on technical issues, promote open standards and interoperability and simplify adoption of tools. See for yourself at EBU.IO.
Dare to be more agile!
Similar experiences were shared later in the same week, during the first meeting of a new EBU Strategic Programme on Agile Software Collaboration. The main focus of the group is to share their development experiences to better meet their software development challenges. The group will also be responsible for next year's EBU DEVCON, scheduled to take place 06-07 October 2015.