As part of our celebration of 10 years of going Agile, IBM has published an article about our journey with Targetprocess, a tool we are still completely satisfied with 10 year on. Here’s an excerpt:

"A critical success factor for Starmark when migrating away from waterfall and to Agile was to find the right software tool to run our business using Agile methodology. It needed to be technically savvy, but also have a great UI for our creative teams too. After piloting multiple tools, we landed on Targetprocess (by IBM). It has the perfect blend of sophistication for our developers, and user friendliness for our managers and creative teams allowing everyone to understand their workloads at a glance."

Executive summary

When Starmark, an integrated marketing agency based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, realized the benefits of Agile, its leaders made a bold decision to embrace the methodology across the entire agency. What began as an experiment with one project team grew into a full-scale organizational transformation empowered by IBM Targetprocess. Starmark changed how it delivered work, how it collaborated with clients, and how it sustained its people, becoming an agile agency with:

• Sharper financial forecasting
• Healthier margins
• Improved customer and employee satisfaction
• A reputation for reliability in an industry often plagued by missed deadlines and change orders

In 2025, Starmark celebrated ten years and 260 sprints since it first adopted Agile and Targetprocess, and the company continues to push the boundaries of what is possible for an agile agency in the advertising industry.

Company overview

Founded in 1978, Starmark is a full-service marketing communications agency serving clients in travel, education, healthcare, and B2B technology, including the Florida Keys & Key West, Amelia Island, Nova Southeastern University, Nickelodeon, Florida Power & Light, and Joe DiMaggio’s Children’s Hospital. With 45 employees and a strong partner ecosystem, the agency delivers everything from traditional campaigns and websites to immersive experiences in augmented and virtual reality with core specialties in branding, advertising, digital media, and data science.

The challenge

For over thirty-five years, Starmark managed projects using a waterfall methodology. This approach worked well, and the company excelled in delivering services to its customers. In 2011, Starmark signed a 3-year project that included hardware, software, and front-end and back-end application development services. Because of the software development aspect of the work, the project leaders followed Agile methods to manage the project instead of the company’s traditional waterfall approach.

This decision led to dramatic improvements. The team collaborated better, there were fewer delays, and the overall delivery of the project was smoother. Starmark’s executive leaders saw the benefits and decided to adopt Agile for all new projects across the company. But scaling Agile across an agency of copywriters, designers, media buyers, and strategists was something very few agencies had done.

The solution

During the agency’s annual planning in the fall of 2014, senior leaders introduced the idea of making Agile a company-wide practice. To prepare, every leader received a short book on Agile to give them a baseline understanding of the concepts, principles, and workflows. Skepticism was high, but the idea soon took root.

Rather than attempt the transition alone, Starmark brought in an outside consulting group for assistance. The agency shut down for an entire week while every employee, from art directors to media planners, was trained in Agile practices. To make sure the methodology took hold, all training was done without screens or software. Employees worked with index cards, Sharpies, and white boards.

Once the Agile methodology was understood, the agency turned its attention to finding a tool that could support it. Several products were reviewed, including Jira and Trello, but neither offered the ideal balance of usability and depth for the agency’s creative needs. Then, the company discovered IBM Targetprocess.

“The product just has a wonderful user interface,” says Brett Circe, Chief Digital Officer at Starmark. “It was super friendly and easy to use for our creatives and still had the technical depth we wanted. Most importantly, it could scale to support our entire business.”

By January 1, 2015, the agency was running fully in Agile. Existing waterfall projects were allowed to complete untouched, but all new projects followed Agile from the beginning. Targetprocess became the hub of all activity,

 

Show Other Stories