Exigen Services Hosts First Ever Certified Scrum Master Training in Russia

BOSTON, Mass., March 2007 — Exigen Services, one of the largest application outsourcing firms in Central and Eastern Europe, organized the first ever Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training course in Russia on March 1st and 2nd with Dr. Jeff Sutherland, co-inventor of the Scrum software process and leading authority on Agile methodologies. Held in Exigen Services’ St. Petersburg office, Sutherland led an intensive session for a group of 24 participants from Exigen Services and several other Russian software companies looking to learn about Scrum’s development and project management practices for improving IT-business alignment, quality and time-to-market.

Certified Scrum Master training courses cover ways to use Scrum in organizations with multiple teams, track progress at a macro level, and organize release planning in order to maximize ROI, as well as investigate reasons the straightforward Scrum framework helps organizations drive productivity levels.

“My Scrum Master workshops are more in demand as an increasing number of global companies worldwide embrace Agile development methodologies,” said Jeff Sutherland. “There is an unbelievable talent pool of developers in Russia, namely at Exigen Services which embraced Scrum and other Agile methodologies early on and with great success to date. I look forward to supporting Exigen Services and its growing team of Scrum Masters as the company expands operations.”

Exigen Services is a clear leader in Russia and Eastern Europe in managing complex projects by applying Agile methods for global 2000 clients, including CSC and T-Mobile, as endorsed by Sutherland and other Agile development experts. In his paper delivered at the International Conference on Complex Systems in June 2006, Sutherland called the Horizon 8.0 project between Exigen Services and SirsiDynix, the global leader in technology solutions for libraries, the world's most productive large outsourced Java project documented to date.

“Exigen Services is grateful for Jeff Sutherlands’ support of our projects especially as we launch into a new phase of our company’s development where we will need more competent Scrum developers and managers to staff our expanding portfolio of projects,” said Alex Adamopoulos of Exigen Services. “We have dedicated ourselves to becoming Agile experts and provide a range of related services, including: assisting customers’ development organizations with moving to an Agile paradigm such as Scrum or Extreme Programming (XP); helping install lightweight, value-based processes and approaches in their own development organizations; and offering consultancy and coaching for streamlining offshore/distributed environments and projects by applying Agile methods.”

About Jeff Sutherland
Dr. Sutherland is Chief Technology Officer of PatientKeeper, providing mobile/wireless applications to clinicians in large healthcare enterprises. His early experiences in computing include reconnaissance planning as a USAF RF-4C pilot flying 100 missions over North Vietnam. His work at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory during 1970-72 led to appointments as Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the USAF Academy 1972-75 and Assistant Professor of Radiology, Biometrics, and Preventive Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine 1975-83. Since that time he has directed ongoing major application development projects in the software industry. Beginning in 1986, he devoted himself exclusively to object-oriented systems development and in 1993, invented the SCRUM development process which is now widely used for managing hyperproductive development teams. As a signatory of the Agile Manifesto, he has helped to spawn hundreds of papers and dozens of books on agile software development processes in the last two years. These new processes, particularly SCRUM, are highly relevant to delivery of cost-effective software solutions. www.jeffsutherland.com

About Exigen Services
Exigen Services is one of the largest and most comprehensive application outsourcing service providers in Central and Eastern Europe. The company’s technology-driven approach to application outsourcing leverages deep vertical expertise, proprietary IP and proficiency in Agile development methodologies to deliver exceptional customer value in transformational and custom application development projects. Exigen Services has strong track record and industry expertise in banking, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, and other sectors.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with a strong operational base in EU and a deep reach into the local talent pools in Russia and Ukraine, Exigen Services today has over 1,500 professionals and more than a decade of experience. The company's software engineering processes are CMMI Level 5 and ISO-9001 certified for efficiency, maturity and stability. www.exigenservices.com

For more information, please contact:

Cheryl Gale / Eric Seymour, March PR
+1 617 475 1571 / +1 617 475 1564
Exigen@marchpr.com