Advisory Panel on Agile Development (8th)

Overview

For an overview of this panel, please refer to Expert Panel on Agile Development .

Event Information

Date and Time:: Friday, February 13, 2026, from 14:00 to 16:00
Location:: Online (Microsoft Teams)
Committee members present:: Chair: Mr. Kano, Member: Mr. Sugii, Member: Mr. Okashima, Member: Mr. Sano, Advisor: Mr.

Agenda

Opening
Message from the Chairman
Agenda
- Review of the Previous Expert Panel
- Sharing and discussion of issues and hypotheses
- Upcoming Schedule
Closing and Communication

Material

Summary of the proceedings

The Secretariat explained the review of the previous Study Group and the issues and hypotheses of the current Study Group, followed by discussion. The main opinions of the committee members were as follows.

Requirements for an Agile Development Pilot Project

When inviting projects, it may be better to appeal the merit and significance of implementing a pilot project (a project to verify the feasibility and issues by conducting a small-scale test operation before fully establishing an environment to adopt agile development), which will attract more applications.
The pilot project of agile software development in Tokyo was designed as a framework in which simple information systems and tools can be built with the budget of the Digital Service Bureau, which is in charge of overall management, not with the budget of each department, and received many applications. In this way, it is important to design a framework that is easy for the field to participate in the pilot project.
Instead of inviting a project to be implemented as a pilot, it is one of the ways to invite people who want to be involved in agile development. In addition, the target of the development of the hypothesis on page 14 of Document 2 says, "At least one release is scheduled within half a year." It is desirable to say, "There is an opportunity to release within half a year." This is because a flexible project that can postpone the release depending on the situation is considered to be more suitable as a pilot project.
In the private sector, it sometimes takes two or three years to find a pilot project, so it is necessary to be careful not to take too long. There is a pattern that the first pilot project works well, but the second or third pilot project fails. Therefore, it is good to have continuous support. In addition, when proceeding with a pilot project as a sub-project, it is necessary to pay attention to the dependency with other teams (if there is a dependency, it is better not to choose it).
I think that it is easier to attract enthusiastic people if you list projects that are not eligible, rather than those that are, and if the conditions are not absolutely unacceptable, you have an attitude of trying to challenge them anyway.
Through meetings and interviews, it is important to select enthusiastic people by judging their motivation by listening to what they want to do in the project. The target of the pilot project in the organization to which they belonged in the past was not a large scale, and it was desirable to have an internal system and data analysis tool with a small impact.
I think it is also important for those in charge of inviting pilot projects to practice and experience agile development on their own. In addition, if the pilot project is a new project, it will take time to prepare. Therefore, I think it is good to start with a renovation project that has an existing development environment without being too picky about new projects.
If the purpose of the project is to improve the agile development adoption criteria guidebook (draft) through feedback from the pilot project, I think there is no problem even if it is not a new project. Even if the project fails, it can be considered that it can be reflected in the guidebook.
In the first year, the organization to which I belonged in the past implemented a simple modification of the portal site managed by the division to which I belonged as a pilot project. From the second year, four projects were implemented in parallel in half a year. It is hard, but as a promoter, I have learned a lot, and it is an advantage that I can compare and verify projects.
It is important not only to follow the agile development adoption criteria guidebook (draft), but also to involve people who can lead the product to success. I think that this will eventually lead to the improvement of the guidebook (draft).

Accumulation and utilization of organizational knowledge on agile development

In a case study in the private sector, Scrum Masters from four separate teams doing agile development met regularly to share and reflect on their know-how as double-loop learning. In the case of Digital Agency, I think it would be effective to have a Product Owner Sharing Meeting.
It would be effective to introduce measures to improve the efficiency of internal information sharing and knowledge management, such as reviewing, Open Space Technology, and the creation of an internal Wiki. However, as new work will increase, we are concerned that if we do not devise ways to reduce the amount of work at the same time, we will be exhausted and will not be able to continue. This should be considered when starting new initiatives.
If there is a mechanism to share and accumulate know-how within the Digital Agency, it may be possible to reduce the burden by utilizing it.
If there is an article that summarizes the effectiveness of agile development, such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Playbook, as an initiative for small start knowledge accumulation, the benefits of agile development will be recognized and spread to many employees. It is effective to focus on outcomes without making the content difficult.
In order to attract enthusiastic people, it is often effective to start with community building and collaboration. It is also effective to enhance the content of the training by making it more practical so that people will be interested.
It is effective to create a community and hold an event. In addition, if the Agile CoE creates multiple media such as articles and video using generative AI, it will be easier to continue and spread agile development through various media.
Regarding the training content that can be a hook to get people interested in agile development, I think that hands-on training that lets people experience efficiency improvement can have an impact on the participants and be effective.
In order to get off to a good start, I think that if there is a training course for understanding agile development that is not for the people on the front lines, but that can be taken together by the upper management and people who are not in development, the understanding of specialized content that is difficult to understand even if explained by people on the front lines will be deepened.
In order to avoid any discrepancy in understanding between the accounting system and the department in charge of accounting in relation to procurement, it is better to announce to the people in the Digital Agency that there is a method called agile development as a method of procurement and development, and to prepare a template so that it can be processed without delay.

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