Creating an agile environment

Creating an Agile Environment

Gregory S. Smith

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This article is based on a chapter from the book "Becoming Agile", www.manning.com/smith, to be published February 2009. It is being reproduced here by permission from Manning Publications. Manning early access books and ebooks are sold exclusively through Manning. Visit the book's page for more information.

A few months ago I was contacted by a friend with a problem. The year was coming to an end and he had let a compliance project slip through the cracks. The compliance deadline was year end which was a mere 5 weeks away. Failure to comply could mean serious government repercussions to his company. My friend asked for help in creating an Agile team and doing an Agile project in the following 5 weeks.

This would be a great time to tout how Agile came in and saved the day but that would be a lie. I did help my friend prioritize his work and make the deadline, and we did follow some Agile principles along the way, but we did not put an Agile team or process in place.

Why didn’t we put an Agile team in place and follow an Agile framework? Because it takes time. Teams need time to feel comfortable with Agile processes and they need time to learn how to interact with each other. Managers need time to learn how to lead in an Agile environment. The team needs to use an Agile process for several months, then major benefits will begin to manifest.

Migrating to Agile is more than changing your process. It also requires a change in culture. For most companies changing culture is the most difficult part. I believe this is true for several reasons. Here are a few:

Whether successful or not, companies get comfortable with their processes.
Many people still believe requirements change because they are poorly managed. They cannot comprehend a process that embraces change.
Most managers have been trained to control events. Empowering the development team to deliver and own the project is not intuitive or