How Agile are India's States and Cities?

While there are many programs available for professional Agile courses from various alliances, PMI's Agile Certified Practitioner program stands out by its sheer depth and breadth - covering aspects on XP, Kanban, DSDM, Lean, TDD/ATDD and of course the most used one - Scrum. Also, while other programs are easily done in less than a week (and sometimes even in a day or two), PMI-ACP demands quite a thorough understanding on Agile related practices and needs months of rigorous preparation.  

In this post I am focusing on PMI-ACP to check on Agility of Indian states and cities, though there are many other programs available specific to certain practices, e.g. Scrum. There is a projected future growth based on past trends. The data taken is from PMI's website as on 18th August, 2014. The total number of PMI-ACP professionals in India stands at 770. 

Chart # 1:  Top 10 States with PMI-ACP Professionals

Interpretation:
Karnataka is clearly the leader closely followed by Andhra Pradesh. But, does it mean all cities and towns in Karnataka are equally into it? Not really! Looking only at a state can be misleading as few regions in that state drive the growth. Let us look at the Chart 2.

Chart # 2:  Top 10 Regions with PMI-ACP Professionals

Here the New Capital Region(NCR) is taken as one. However, Delhi/New Delhi region has been kept out from NCR.

Interpretation:

• Clearly Bangalore is the leader in this aspect with Hyderabad as close second. 
• It is interesting to note that one region has been developed in most of the states and driving the growth. 
• Only Maharasta, has two regions coming up with significant numbers, i.e., Pune and Mumbai.

But again, regions can be misleading, too!  Say for example - NCR, which is vast and covers multiple states and thousands of square kilometers - includes Gurgaon,Karnal of Haryana, Noida,Meeurt and Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and so on. Similarly Bhubaneswar has been combined with Cuttack as near by cities in Odisha and Hyderabad has been combined with Secunderabad for Andhra. So, let us check on individual cities as the correct picture will come from cities. 

Chart # 3:  Top 10 Cities with PMI-ACP Professionals

Interpretation: 

• Bangalore again leads here with a clear majority.
• Professional strength from Bangalore is higher than combined one of Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Secunderabad (and also if you add Kolkata)!
• Four cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune - are fueling the growth
• Hyderabad is very close, next only to Bangalore, which is a surprise for me personally.
• Other than Bangalore, only Belgaum has one ACP professional in the list from Karnataka. Other cities like Mysore or Mangalore do not figure in the list.
• Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Maharastra has a number of cities/towns coming in the list, which is unlike Karnataka.

Chart # 4: The Pie Chart of State Distribution

Interpretation: 

• Karnataka has 28% which is almost driven only by Bangalore
• Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (driven primarily by Hyderabad) together has over 50% professionals of India!
• Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Maharastra have over 80% ACP professionals of India 

However, in other states of India, this program is also being adopted. The next chart shows the list.

Chart # 5: The Complete State Pivot List

Interpretation: 

• Good to see states like Jammu and Kashmir along with Assam have figured in the list which have been in turmoil for years due to insurgency 
• Signal strengths super imposed on the color coded cells show the positive, negative or static trends across the states

Chart # 6: Trends Across Cities

Note that the data for 2014 is till August 18. For year 2011, only the months of November and December are applicable, as ACP program was launched during that time period.

Interpretation: 

• Chennai went ahead of Pune in 2013 and is expected to be at No. 3 by end of this year
• Mumbai and Delhi have seen almost same pattern of growth
• Bangalore - a city that attracts professionals from all over India - will continue to be No.1 in 2014.

Chart #7: Overall Trend in India 

Note that the data for 2014 is till August 18. For year 2011, only the months of November and December are applicable, as ACP program was launched during that time period.

Interpretation: 

• Based on last 3 years and data till August, 2014, the number is set to cross 350 by end of 2014 and likely to be in the range of 350 to 400.
• The R square value is 0.82, which is close to 1 and fits the pattern.  

Based only on last 3 years, i.e., excluding year 2014, the number is expected to cross well over 400. It is not in the above graph. However, as the R square value is found to be 0.99, it can not be ignored.