Over on
InfoQ , Amr Elssamadisy says
successful agile teams are
predominantly characterized by their culture and not their
practices .
Agreed. Team culture grows out of the values people share, their
behaviour and the chemistry their personalities create and the fun
they have when they work together, the friendships they form and
their combined sense of belonging. Sadly, a team's culture is often
limited by the culture of the wider organisation. But, it's not
enough to just have a great culture. Without disciplined
application of practices a team is likely to deliver poorer
quality.
Agile teams that just do the practices are mechanical and the rote
application of practices is not being agile; you might call it
'doing Agile', maybe. Whatever. It misses
the point and the full potential
of a team will never be realised. Practices are tools and they are
more effective in the hands of a
craftsman . A craftsman is a master of his
tools. His mastery is borne out of his personal discipline when
using the tools, his awareness of context, the factors in play and
what's going on around him, and his thought processes. Without
personal discipline, awareness and the inculcation of values and
principles, it is easy for people to regress to bad habits.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
More than practices are required to be agile
Posted by Simon Baker - Permalink
1 Comment
Nice post - however I would argue that practices and tools could play an important role in organizations with no experience with Agile and willing to adopt these values.
The tools and practices can plant the seed for the Agile values and attitudes to progressively grow. Learning by doing... Use the practices, check the results, and adapt.