Agile Program Management: Lessons Learned from the VeriSign Managed Security Services Team

This report examines how the VeriSign Managed Security Services (MSS) has successfully extended agile software development practices to deal with a complex, multi-product development organization. It showcases how VeriSign overcame several key challenges in the adoption of agile, such as the need to restructure the teams, and shows how the program management office provided organizational "glue" to hold things together to ensure a successful transition. It introduces several novel approaches to product-centric agile development, including the replacement of traditional market requirements documents (MRDs) with a "fast track" business concept, and shows how cross-functional prioritization processes enable agility. It demonstrates how VeriSign collaborated with external consultants to ensure that best-practices were adopted and suggests ways that other companies can effectively manage the client-consultant dynamic. We conclude with an exploration of areas for further development, focusing on project level metrics for corporate planning.