Another Agile user here, and I pretty much agree with iab’s feelings on the subject. Last year we finally upgraded from Agile 2006! Luckily, we don’t have as exhaustive an ECO process, but it still takes a while. The time suck for me is when I have to convert all files to an ECO-friendly format, then submit for approval, then make changes before the ECO gets signed off. Luckily, I’ve been able to automate a lot of the tedious stuff with scripting in Illustrator and Solidworks. Learning to “Save as” ECOs was also a big time saver.
The big hang ups for my company are when we are waiting on compliance approval - Files can be ready for the factory but not approved for release for up to (or more than) a month!
Overall, it’s a pretty easy concept to grasp -