When people talk about Agile (with a capital A) organisations
think "methodology for software development teams". This thinking
gains credence when Agile finds its way into organisations through
developers, as a grass-roots initiative, which is often the case.
Taken alone, this adoption route is likely to fail, or at best, be
severely hamstrung because the business and other organisational
entities are not operating with the same values and principles.
In supposedly agile projects, the values and principles break down
in the wider business. Some organisations are unaware of this. And
most aren't capable of addressing it because of habit, superstition
and fear, inertia, and a lack of top-down support. Alarmingly,
compromising the values and principles seems to be culturally
accepted (and, in my opinion, endemic in the industry today). If
the whole organisation cannot operate with shared values and
principles, the technical investment becomes increasingly
overshadowed by compromises made in the business domain. And it's
these compromises that eventually cause projects to fail.
These days I try not to say Agile (with a capital A). When I talk
with companies I talk about "agility" and "achieving agility". For
me, "agility" is the ability to deliver value to the business
frequently, with quality software, and in a repeatable manner by
leveraging the capability of empowered, disciplined,
self-organising and cross-functional teams that are employing
techniques based on the values and principles. While "achieving
agility" is a continuous process of change which, to be successful,
must involve the whole organisation.
This post is based on one of many thought-provoking and
enlightening conversations I have with
Gus .
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Talking about agility
Posted by Simon Baker - Permalink
