Being Agile is
your roadmap to successfully transforming to an Agile culture. In this unique book,
veteran Agile Coach Mario Moreira advises new and current adopters how to
implement a robust Agile framework that emphasizes Agile values and principles
over the mechanical elements. This book focuses on the business benefit of
implementing Agile which focuses on delivering customer value and having a
positive impact on revenue.
This book begins by
explaining that in order to truly cross the Agile chasm, there must be a
transformation to the Agile culture that focuses on delivering customer value. Mario shows maturing early adopters how to
bridge the chasm between going through the motions of “doing Agile” and
genuinely “being Agile.”
It then delves into the
business benefits of Agile and the often missing discussion that Agile supplements
your strategy to help your business succeed.
The book highlights the important objectives of customer and employees
matter, another area that often is underserved.
It briefly discussions some of the methodologies (including Scrum,
Kanban, DSDM, Lean, VFQ, and XP), and the roles a team and organization can
play within an Agile context.
After a high-level synopsis
of Agile, Mario reminds us that Agile is nothing more and nothing less than a
set of values and principles. This book
delves deeply into a focus on the Agile values and principles. This book dissects each value and principle
that conveys whether they are really exhibited within a culture. These values and principles must be observed,
believed, and translated into actions as an important to precipitate a cultural
shift. The book emphasizes the importance of keeping the values and principles
always in mind.
The author then plunges
into the nitty-gritty of the deploying Agile in a manner that will better
achieve an Agile transformation. He does
this by introducing the reader to the Ready, Implement, Coach, and Hone (RICH) Deployment
model. The rubric of readiness
engages and begins conditioning the mind toward the Agile mindset as well as
focusing on the areas that need to be considered as you are embarking on your
Agile journey. He asks you to consider
such factors as:
·
Evaluating team candidates
for skills, behavior, and willingness
·
Assessing Stakeholder
buy-in and engagement
·
Determining Suitability for
applying Agile
·
Identifying measures to see if you are Agile and if you are deriving the business
benefits
·
Establishing a customer
validation vision to engage in the critical customer feedback
·
Implementing Agile roles
and identifying those best for these roles
·
Establishing an adaptable
and scalable Agile framework
·
Determining your User story
writing and grooming approach
·
Understanding story points for sizing and establishing a relative sizing framework
·
Establishing Educational
needs and building an Agile community
·
Constructing Done criteria
and how it helps with quality
Implement focuses on the timely application of agile elements
within a team or organization while still maintaining
emphasis on the Agile values and principles. Coach focuses on on-boarding teams, coaching teams and management
through initial implementation, grooming in-house talent, ensuring Agile values
and principles are a focus, while acting as a navigator on the path to Agility. Hone emphasizes
the inspect-and-adapt model where periodically the current state is reflected
upon and opportunities for improvement identified and acted upon.
This book is geared toward Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product
Owners, Team members, product managers, project managers, middle, senior, and
executive management in software engineering and development divisions and
enterprises. Learning opportunities
include:
·
Comprehending Agile values
and principles with an in-depth discussion on each principle and how they may
be exemplified within an Agile culture.
·
Advocating a framework in
which values, customer engagement, employee engagement, and an Agile framework
can lead to an increase in sales and productivity, incorporated in the Agile
Value to Incentive Differentiator (AVID) framework.
·
Presenting a methodical yet
adaptable approach toward Agile transformation, encapsulated in a Ready–Implement–Coach–Hone
(RICH) deployment model that can help establish an adaptable roadmap
toward your Agile destination.
·
Introducing the importance
of an Agile Customer Validation Vision that emphasizes a disciplined
approach to engaging customers and gaining their valuable customer feedback
·
Providing a mechanism for
evaluating your level of alignment to the Agile values and principles,
encapsulated in the Agile Mindset Values and Principles (Agile MVP) Advisor.
·
Promoting a special focus
on value-added
work (VAW) that features customer work as valuable and an accompanying
value capture metric.
·
Introducing Gamification
concepts to engage and motivate employees toward Agile behaviors with the goal
of achieving an Agile transformation
·
Advocating a change in your
IT governance toward collaborative governance and performance review process
places a focus on team rewards.
This book ends with three
case studies—stories of a smaller colocated project, a medium distributed
project, and a large distributed team—to help you understand how the readiness
activities, deployment approach, and commitment to Agile lead to different
results. This book can help you focus on truly “being Agile” and gain the
business benefits of doing so. What will
your case study look like? Let this material in Being Agile help you achieve a successful one.
