Agile change and transformation
In 10 years since the signing of the Agile Manifesto we’ve seen some notable successes, half-way efforts, fragile, scrum-but and just plain #FAIL. We tried to adopt agile methods to solve all types of problems, and many of those problems persist. What are the most common failure modes? How can organizations avoid falling into those failing patterns?
As Agile and Scrum are increasingly used to manage software development projects in large companies, Nancy Nee, VP Global Product Strategy at ESI International, provides us with her viewpoint on how the transition to Agile is going on. She also shares some advice on how make the adoption process as smooth as possible.
Paul Pazderski proposes in this article a scorecard to assess the level of transformation of a project team into a Scrum team. This card could be filled by an independent observer like an Agile coach to check how the team is adopting Scrum practices like Product Backlog management or Sprint Reviews.
In a slightly provocatively titled “Why I’m done with Scrum” blog post, Jimmy Bogard provides four reasons reasons why he decided to abandon using Scrum to adopt a lean approach to software development.In his first two reasons, he discusses the inefficiencies of the iteration system.
The adoption of Agile approaches has introduced new ways of thinking about Project Management, which impact Project Management Organizations in various ways. This paper divides the range of practices commonly found in Project Management Office (PMO) into Project Management, Program Management and Portfolio Management. It identifies how the introduction of Agile processes such as Scrum impacts the PMO.
The Agile Karlskrona test is a simple self-assesement test that tries to answer the “How agile are you?” question. With 11 questions, this test should help you find where “on the road” from waterfall to agile your software development team is at the moment.
Companies that transition to Agile often adopt the analogy that sprints are just mini waterfall. This article provides five reasons why Scrum sprints are not mini-Waterfall. Each argument is illustrated by a diagram that provides a clear visual evidence of the difference between the Agile approach and a traditional process.