Is it finally time to “Be Agile”?

As I look across the Agile landscape, I am worried that Agile has become little more than a superficial tag that some teams and companies seek without really aligning with the cultural shift that is needed to truly become Agile.  What I mean by this is to really align with Agile, it means to understand and embrace the Agile Values and Principles.  While this sounds obvious, I believe there is such little focus on the values and principles and much more so on the mechanics. 

I have hypothesized that those involved in Agile are more knowledgeable about the mechanics of “doing Agile” than understanding the cultural aspects needed for “being Agile”.  My specify hypothesis stated that I believe fewer people could name 3 of the 12.

As I look across the Agile landscape, I am worried that Agile has become little more than a superficial tag that some teams and organizations seek without aligning with the real cultural shift that is needed to truly become Agile.  What I mean by this is to really align with Agile, it means to understand and embrace the Agile Values and Principles.  While this sounds obvious, I believe there is such little focus on the values and principles and much more so on the mechanics. 

I have hypothesized that those involved in Agile are more knowledgeable about the mechanics of “doing Agile” than understanding the cultural aspects needed for “being Agile”.  My specify hypothesis stated that I believe fewer people could name 3 of the 12 Agile Principles, then could roughly name 3 of the 5 Scrum events (i.e., Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective).  In order to make my hypothesis meaningful, it was important to test it. 

With that in mind, I established an experiment that tests if people can articulate the Agile principles and if they can articulate the Scrum events.   I created a simple survey that asked Agile participants to write down as many of the five Scrum events that they knew and then write down as many of the twelve Agile Principles they knew.  I distributed this survey to two different Agile professional events and accumulated over 100 survey responses (109 to be exact).  The results were quite revealing and support my hypothesis.  Of the 109 Agile participants: 

• 59% knew 3 or more of the five Scrum events
• 11% knew 3 or more of the twelve Agile principles

I actually find these results quite astounding.  Could it really be true that only 11% of Agile professionals and enthusiasts could name just 3 Agile principles?  I don't mean they they memorize them but can provide at least the key words of the principle.  This means that 89% could only name 2 or less.  What makes this even more astonishing is that 67% could not name even a single Agile principle (and I did give credit to those who could name the key words of the principle - e.g., self-organizing,  frequent delivery, etc.). 

In reviewing the survey results, about half of the 67% confused the Agile principles with the Agile Values (e.g., Individuals and interactions over processes and tools).  On the flip side, 59% could name at least 3 of the mechanical Scrum events.  Here are two charts that illustrate the number of respondents that could name a certain number of Scrum events and Agile principles. 

Based on this data, my concluding hypothesis is that the reason there is such a lack of awareness of Agile principles is that there is very little education focused on the Agile principles.  This is particularly concerning since the principles form the basis for what an Agile culture should look like. A simple way for each and every one of us to test this hypothesis is to ask these two questions:

• How many Agile principles can you name?  Is it 3 or more?
• How much Agile related education have you have received and how much of it was focused on the Agile principles? 

Now do keep in mind, knowing the principles is just the first step and it doesn't make you Agile. Next its time to live it.  But how do we expect to “be Agile” if our focus is so much more focused on the mechanics or “doing Agile”.   I would suggest that anyone who claims to be an Agile enthusiast ought to periodically bring their work back to the Agile values and principles.  Maybe its time to revisit the values and principles and understand what it really takes to be Agile.

Sunny with a Chance of Agility

What is your Agile weather report?  Some have sunny Agile efforts ahead. Some are looking to get introduced to agility and others are considering strategies for Agile deployments.  As we gaze in the horizon, what do we think will be hot in the Agile landscape and improve our working lives? What might be some of the latest shifts in the Agile industry in the upcoming year?

The theme of my Agile weather report for 2011 focuses on:

• Job security with Agile credentials
• More structure with Agile deployments
• Agile Tooling goes ALM

Prediction #1:  Job security with Agile credentials

I predict that we will see a significant growth in software engineering jobs that include an Agile element to them.  In general, we are seeing a growth in the use of Agile methodologies and practices in the software industry.   Many of the new positions are now mentioning Agile as one of the job requirements.  The implication is that they are looking for people who have worked within an Agile context so that when they join the new company, they bring Agile experience. 

Prediction #2:  More structure with Agile deployments

As product teams become more mature so do their Agile practices.  While Agile has been utilized in projects for several years now, it is still new to many.  With that in mind, I expect to see more formality in deploying Agile.  This is especially true since Agile is no longer a budding trend but maturing where patterns are emerging that lead to more successful Agile deployments.  While some would like to say, “Let’s just get started doing Agile”, it may be better to consider a methodical or strategic approach to the deployment of Agile.  With that in mind, here are some Agile adoption approaches that may be considered:

• Agile Adoption Roadmap by Mario Moreira
• Shock Therapy by Jeff Sutherland, et al.
• Agile Scaling Model by Scott Ambler

Prediction #3: Agile Tooling goes ALM

As we look into 2011 and the future, we will see more focus on providing comprehensive Agile tooling capabilities within an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) framework.  The value of having an ALM framework is that it allows a product team to manage customer needs from business case development to delivery.  When tools support this framework, it can help streamline and reduce the effort in supporting the process.  Some examples of tooling that provides an Agile focus in an ALM context include:

• CA Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Agile Solution
• IBM Rational Team Concert
• HP Quality Center Agile Accelerator

Summary
As we look into 2011, conditions could be quite sunny for those companies looking for the Agile edge.  What this may mean to those with Agile credentials is that you will gain job security.  Since Agile is becoming more mature, continues to prove itself, and can scale to larger product teams and their projects, there will be a need to have more consistent approaches to deploying Agile.   There are patterns for success deployments which new teams can take advantage of.  And as Agile tooling makes its way into more of an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) framework, it can provide a more end-to-end view of how business and user needs make their way to delivery.  Whether your forecast is sunny or cloudy (or a little bit of both), consider agility in driving your business!  Have a productive 2011!

Note: if you want to read the full article from the Agile Journal, go to: http://www.agilejournal.com/articles/columns/column-articles/3529-sunny-with-a-chance-of-agility-agile-predictions-for-2011