Teaser article for a series on how to do agile without starting from scratch.
One of the core tenets of agile is continuous improvement and finding out what works for you. This comes from the principle that:
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
For this reason I’m hesitant to provide a ready made process to folks. Saying “here, do all this and you will be agile” feels wrong. I’ve been the subject of one of these consulting led lean transformations so I know what its like to have a bunch of outside folks tell you how to operate.
On the flip side I’ve been involved with agile projects since the start in 2001 and before that one of the precursors ‘rapid application development’ so I would say I have a lot of experience to share. I’ve worked in high performing teams and seen cases where agile has been misinterpreted and failing. I would like to share these experiences and resulting advice.
Over the years I’ve developed an system of agile that works for me. My interpretations go beyond the scrum guide or agile principles. It continues to evolve as expected. Some of the articles on this site are going to describe this system, opinions on commonly accepted practices such as planning poker, and other suggestions.
Whilst these work for me they may not work for you. There is no reason not to continue with your existing improvement process. If you read along you will find thoughts on Azure DevOps process models, team structure, giving value to epics, specific steps to running scrum ceremonies, tips like card styling and more.
Feel free to borrow the ideas and make them your own.
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash