#Agile is a very popular term being used more and more in larger companies. Some areas of the IT industry have been using Agile for many years, others are only just starting to understand the benefits it can bring, but do people really get what is required to move to Agile?
Agile isn’t just as simple as the sales pitch.
“If you do Agile you get users seeing their product more quickly, with turn around time in weeks not months. Agile also brings the push button deployment to production environments and allows the user community to flex their priorities / required functionality easily!”
What is written above is true, but that describes an
end state, not ‘journey’ you have to travel to get there.
For Agile to work you have to have an inherent high quality bar. The requirements for the project need to be unambiguous for the user, developer and tester. It has to clear for all to ensure that everyone knows what they are driving towards. The developers must have high unit test coverage. You also need automated build and automated regression test packs built in. The tester (or quality assurance person) must have a handle on the process they will use to effectively minimise their testing effort with as much being automated as possible.
The user community must spend more time with the IT team. Daily standup are mandatory to ensure their agenda is being progressed. And to allow the IT team to quickly ask questions. There is also need product backlog reviews to assess the strategic direction of the activity being undertaken. The user community (and senior management) must also take, what might be in their mind, a leap of faith on when the product will be delivered. It is unlikely you will ever see a project schedule (some people call it an project plan) saying when the agile activity will be delivered / finished.
Status reporting becomes more aligned to burn down and CFD (cumulative flow diagrams) rather than PM flavoured RAG status.Finally the entirety of the team need to run with some core principles.
… “Let’s have a go and see if we can make this work”
… “I attempted this, learnt from it and I am now improved and won’t do it again”
… “That area looks to be in need of help, let me see what I can do to assist”A LOT of people will have used and worked in waterfall. You can hide in waterfall if you want to, and do very little and still look good. In Agile doesn’t let you do that.
Moving to Agile needs the IT team, the user community, the development operations team, the senior management to full get onboard with moving to Agile. Its not easy, and a lot of people don’t like it when they start the migration, but when you have it working, you do see the benefits.
Although, in my experience thus far, it seems the journey of improvement never ends… There are always things you can tweak to make better.