Since writing the original Agile Zealot’s Handbook , Gus and I have had the chance to reflect on some of the wording. And Mishkin Berteig’s recent generalisation of the handbook has prompted 3 minor editions:
1. We changed the title of TECH to QUALITY because delivering business value without compromising quality is achieved through the disciplined application of practices.
2. We modified the LEARNING text. We added reflection to inspection because it’s one thing to look closely at something, but you need to think more deeply about it to reveal root causes and identify further actions. We also added re-planning as a specific activity that must occur at every iteration boundary, which along with adaptation and improvement, is based on what you learnt from the previous iteration.
3. Under TEAM, we felt a team also needs to be empowered to be creative because only when it has the freedom to be creative will it find better solutions by taking risks, failing fast and trying different things.
So here’s the new version:
IF you don’t repeatedly release software
into the production environment
at least once every month
that realises value for your business
and satisfies your customers…
QUALITY
IF you’re not paying constant attention to technical excellence
with simple, effective, incremental design
driven by continuous, repeatable automated testing
with at least 95% coverage…
LEARNING
IF you’re not learning
by inspecting and reflecting every iteration
and you’re not re-planning, adapting and improving
all of the time based on what you’ve learnt…
TEAM
IF your team is not empowered to self-organise and be creative,
does not sit together and engage in face-to-face communication,
does not include your customer
and all the necessary skills to make its own decisions and take immediate action…
THEN YOU HAVE COMPROMISED YOUR AGILITY
4 Comments
Nice!
Great work! How about generalising "include the customer" to something like "represent the whole value stream"?
I love this - agree with kr - but also I'm worried by the negativity and was thinking of Kipling's IF and thought this might be more positive...
VALUE
IF you can repeatedly release software
into a production environment
at least once every month
that realises business value
for a real customer...
QUALITY
IF you can pay constant attention to technical excellence
with simple, effective, incremental design
driven by continuous, repeatable automated testing
with at least 95% coverage...
LEARNING
IF you can learn
by inspecting and reflecting every iteration
and you're not re-planning, adapting and improving
all of the time based on what you've learnt...
TEAM
IF your team can empower to self-organise and be creative,
does not sit together and engage in face-to-face communication,
does not include your customer
and all the necessary skills to make its own decisions and take immediate action...
THEN YOU HAVE AGILITY
Thanks Dave.
I'm thinking something more like:
VALUE
IF you’re repeatedly releasing software
into a production environment
at least once every month
that realises business value
for a real customer...
QUALITY
IF you're paying constant attention to technical excellence
with simple, effective, incremental design
driven by continuous, repeatable automated testing
with at least 95% coverage...
LEARNING
IF you're learning
by inspecting and reflecting every iteration
and you're re-planning, adapting and improving
all of the time based on what you've learnt...
TEAM
IF your team is empowered to self-organise and be creative,
sits together and engages in face-to-face communication,
includes your customer
and all the necessary skills to make its own decisions and take immediate action...
THEN YOU HAVE NOT COMPROMISED YOUR AGILITY
I don't like "whole value stream" because it's too jargony and isn't as readily understood by the masses as "customer".