Agile change and transformation
Making decisions in groups like Scrum teams is our daily bread. Together we ponder over the right architecture, we select tools and set rules that we should follow as a software development team. In case of errors we discuss and decide how to get rid of them once and for all. We discuss, exchange point of views, bring arguments… or even yell at each other.
One might wonder why it’s not so easy to adopt agile engineering practices and to achieve technical excellence. When we think of practices, we tend to think of simple things: sticking a shopping list on the fridge with a magnet, having a clear and prioritized list of things to do, and doing them in that order. Why is it then that with Agile practices, things don’t work out quite so well?
The basic rules of Agile project management frameworks like Scrum are deceptively simple. Drawing from his experience as an Agile coach, Jeff Campbell offers in his book “Actionable Agile Tools” some lightweight practices and tools that could help you to implement successfully an Agile approach.
What we do in software development is hard. Lots of companies, teams, and people pick up Agile approaches to make it easier, and then realize it’s still really hard. They learn that Agile didn’t fix things. And, then they get to work trying to fix Agile.
It’s all too common these days to see arguments on Twitter or mailing lists with these rules-bound zealots arguing that ”you’re not agile” because you aren’t following the rules to their satisfaction.
This talk is a study of a case in which three Scrum teams converged into a single large team Kanban system design. Working in separate teams resulted in issues with responsibility, hand-overs, resource utilization and a culture of blaming others. In a large, highly self-organized team the members could share responsibility for the whole, work on the right things and focus on flow.
In his book Agile Reflections, Robert Galen has aggregated multiple articles that he wrote about transitioning to Agile for the online publication PM Times. The book is based on his experience as in Agile coach helping companies in different phases of their transition to Agile software development.
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