Chapter 1. Are you ready for agile?

Chapter 3 from Becoming Agile by Greg Smith and Ahmed Sidky

We’re confident you can improve your current development process and obtain a level of agility. If your environment is conducive to it, you may be able to reach the level of agility that Archway Software reached in our discussion in chapter 2.

We’ll start this chapter by providing information that helps you understand the goals of an agile process and how these goals relate to packaged agile methods such as Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum. The chapter will conclude by discussing our approach for bringing agile into your workplace. We’ll start your migration by providing a tool that will let you assess your potential for bringing in agile practices and cultural changes.

3.1 What areas will you become more agile in?

3.1.1 Increasing customer involvement

3.1.2 Improving prioritization of features

3.1.3 Increasing team buy-in and involvement

3.1.4 Clarifying priorities and reminding everyone of the consequences of changing them

3.1.5 Adapting to change during development

3.1.6 Better understanding the project’s status

3.1.7 More efficient planning and estimating

3.1.8 Continuous risk management

3.1.9 Delivering the project needed at the end

3.1.10 Achieving the right level of project structure

3.2 The different flavors of agile

3.2.1 Scrum

3.2.2 Extreme Programming

3.3 Create your own flavor to become agile within your constraints

3.3.1 Your goal: reach the right level of agility for your organization

3.3.2 Characteristics that make agile easier to adopt

3.3.3 Roadblocks that others have overcome

3.4 Key points to remember

3.5 Looking ahead

What's inside