3 Simple Steps to Agile Success

Agile is not the silver bullet and it certainly should not be a buzz word to fit into your business description or a line on some managers’ performance report to check off. Agile is no longer the cutting edge. It is a minimum requirement for development teams. Convert your traditional Waterfall Software Development teams to Agile because you want a happier, focussed and more efficient team that can accomplish the goals you set for them on a sustainable pace and produce the most value for your company in the shortest time possible.

3 steps to Agile:

  1. Identify what you are trying to improve, establish a baseline. If you feel there is nothing to improve, don’t start the conversion to Agile until you spend some time thinking about it. Don’t expect Agile to solve problems with your development team(s). Agile will expose them more starkly and you will have to deal with them either before or after the conversion.
  2. Hire *some* Agile coaches. At least one an Agile purist, at least one an Agile realist (Read “Are you an Agilist or an Agile Realist“). Do not skimp on this. Do not try to do it on your own after reading some books or articles.
  3. Don’t look back, ever! Don’t expect huge improvements right away. Do expect to run into some challenging issues and do expect to feel like your old world was better. Don’t compare your Agile present and future with your Waterfall past. Use the baseline you created in (1) to compare over time.

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