Agility in science – is that possible? Samuel T. Simon argues that agile methods are not just buzzwords but can bring advantages for research processes. Whether at CERN, NASA, or in sustainability research: agile approaches can help optimize processes, enable teams to work together more efficiently, and create space for the actual research.
The focus is above all on transparent communication, clear structures, and efficient processes: Scrum, Kanban, and other tools make project progress and responsibilities visible, create clarity, and enable a shared language. In this way, research can still be conducted thoroughly and scientifically correctly despite agility. At the same time, agile work requires competencies such as tolerance of uncertainty, a positive error culture, and transparent communication, as well as responsible process facilitation by a facilitator.
Recommendations on the topic
- Agile infrastructure at CERN for the complete restructuring of resource and configuration management of its computing centers:
- NASA’s Agile Community of Practice
- Paper “Agile by Accident” (Biely, 2024): https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00823-3
- Crumbles Framework by Iikka Meriläinen & Julia Autio, University of Oulu
- ScrumAdemia, developed by seven doctoral researchers at GIGA, is an adaptation of the Scrum framework tailored specifically to the challenges of the doctoral research phase:
- “Between Worlds – A Guide to Transdisciplinary Research” by Josephine B. Schmitt and Samuel T. Simon
- CAIS Research Incubator
- Open Educational Resource course “Agile Research” at the University of Duisburg–Essen (not yet published)
