Practicing agile theory

Theory vs. practicing the theory Part 3: Practicing Agile – “the other anchors in the sailboat called Agile”   As discussed in part 2 of the “theory vs. practicing the theory”, are people (management/business) the only possible challenges to successfully practicing agile? Well, they may be the ones, but they are definitely NOT “the only ones”. Trying to execute an Agile methodology without understanding it well, in itself creates problems in the long run. Organizations often choose to execute projects/programs using Agile without even being very clear about  (and this may not be an exhaustive list) – What problem are we trying to solve? Will Agile solve all the problems? Or will there be others that’ll need to be approached and addressed differently? Are the ways of working and the expected outcomes clearly understood by all the stakeholders and the team(s) on the ground? What is the common understanding of VALUE and is the focus more on delivering value ra

Theory vs. practicing the theory Part 2: challenges in practicing agile theory So … we looked at the agile manifesto and the “people side” of things that it talks about in part 1 of “theory vs. practicing the theory”. The second part focusses on - What makes agile theory difficult to put into practice? We’ll get a better understanding if we start by looking at who’s involved in software development using agile methodology (and I’ll stick to scrum here to keep it simple). Here are the key players –   The three roles in scrum : product owner (PO), scrum master (SM) and the develop ment team Various management roles (you can’t do away with management, can you?) – project manager, program manager, delivery manager, engagement manager or whatever name you like to give to that “authority” Business stakeholder(s) or those representing the market Project/program sponsor(s) putting their money into the venture Looking at the list of key players above, it doesn’

Theory vs. practicing the theory Part 1: recap of the manifesto This post on my first blog in the "agile space" talks about the theory of agile - the methodologies, frameworks etc. and discusses why it is difficult to practice what is suggested in theory. But first things first, let me tell you why am I obsessed with Agile! I love Agile, primarily because of the fact that it stresses on keeping things simple & focuses primarily on "people" and the "people factors" influencing software development.  If you look closely at the agile manifesto , below are some of the things you'll observe - Two out of four manifesto items are people-related - Individuals and interactions (over processes and tools) Customer collaboration (over contract negotiation) None of the items in the manifesto talk anything about processes to follow or "best practices", so to say! The manifesto doesn't stress on what tools or methodologies to use