Four Reasons Agile Is Difficult to Introduce in Large Companies

(1) Project managers may be reluctant to accept the risk of a new approach as they do not know how it will affect their particular projects,Management reluctance

(2) Large organisations often have quality procedures and standards that all projects are expected to follow — these are likely to be incompatible with agile methods,Organisational standards conflict

(3) Agile methods seem to work best when team members have a relatively high skill level — within large organisations there may be a wide range of skills and people with lower skill levels may not be effective,Skill level variation

(4) There may be cultural resistance to agile methods in organisations with a long history of using conventional systems engineering processes,Cultural resistance

Explanation

Four reasons: (1) Management reluctance — project managers don't know how agile will affect their projects; (2) Organisational standards conflict — quality procedures expected of all projects are likely incompatible with agile; (3) Skill level variation — agile works best with high-skill teams but large organisations have a wide range; (4) Cultural resistance — organisations with long histories of conventional processes find change very difficult.