Agile change and transformation
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.
Is the transition to Agile more difficult for late adopters? In this blog post that provides feedback about his attendance to the Conference on Lean Enterprise Software and Systems, Alan Shalloway explains that those taking on Agile are of a different mindset than those who made it initially successful. He also discusses Scrum-of-Scrums and preventing a “cargo cult” attitude towards agile practice.
This article presents the changes needed to create collaborative agile teams. It explains that you need to modify in your traditional project management team both the process, the way people get work done, and how people work together.