Experiences on Agile Seating, Facilities and Solutions: Multisite Environment

Changing from a traditional functional Telecom R&D Center towards a Lean and Agile Software Development R&D Center is not only changing the way of working. It also makes the change visible through re-organization of seating and facilities. The gradual and drastic change was made in a large scale organization at two geographically separate sites. Due to a long history of own offices, the resistance was substantial. The facilities management had to adapt the new needs, too. It was not only removing walls but understanding the new concept - eight people seated around a common team table sharing everything via whiteboards, flip charts and information radiators. Our approach is: Coordinated by business, made by facilities management. The journey towards Agile communication and collaboration is ongoing. One major challenge is collaboration between teams working on the same feature in a multisite environment. The paper also describes our current solution between the sites.