Fostering and sustaining innovation in a fast growing agile company

Abstract. Sustaining innovation in a fast growing software development com-pany is difficult. As organisations grow, peoples ’ focus often changes from the big picture of the product being developed to the specific role they fill. This pa-per presents two complementary approaches that were successfully used to sup-port continued developer-driven innovation in a rapidly growing Australian ag-ile software development company. The method “FedEx ™ Day ” gives devel-opers one day to showcase a proof of concept they believe should be part of the product, while the method “20 % Time ” allows more ambitious projects to be undertaken. Given the right setting and management support, the two approach-es can support and improve bottom-up innovation in organizations