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I’ve written previously about my allergic reaction to process maturity models for Agile development. Based on 5 years of empirical feedback being a part of or watching what succeeds versus falls back, I do not believe their is a “cookbook” for Agile adoption. Of course, the question then becomes:
If there is no cookbook, then what is the best approach to succeed with my Agile adoption?
Enter the crib sheet for Flow-Pull-Innovate, which is a guidepost for the key transitions in Agile organizations based 
on proven bottom-up success. Because the hurdles and challenges are unique for each organization and code base, this is not a prescriptive approach. It’s a framework to thinking about how to approach Agile adoption incrementally and iteratively and is essential to establishing quick wins that create a virtuous cycle of success to keep the ball rolling.
The three phases of Agile maturity are based on work by Jim Womack in his book Lean Thinking. However, Jean and I thought it was appropriate to substitute “Innovate” for “Perfect” in Agile organizations. In IT/high-tech, it seems more about continuous innovation than the ultimate pursuit to “resource” efficiency.
Getting Over the Hump - Critical Step #3
Over the past 5 years, our focus at Rally has been getting our customer’s successful at Step 3, which we call Multi-Team Program Pull. (See our whitepaper on Leaning IT and moving to Program Pull.)
We focused on this step because at Program Pull, whole software products or major IT systems come to market typically 50% faster, according to the QSMA studies included in the Agile Impact Report. However, in this tough market and with mainstream Agile adoption, more and more organizations are adopting Agile at scale, making it important to light the path beyond Program Pull and into Organizational Pull and Organizational Innovate.
What do think of the crib sheet for Flow-Pull-Innovate? Do you agree with the key metrics? Are these failure signs you’ve experienced? Would your organization be willing to stand behind items in the commitment needed column?
About the Author: Ryan Martens is a trail runner, founding board member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, and Founder and CTO at Rally Software Development. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.
Great post! This is, for the most part, the system that I have used implement Agile within organizations. An interesting note, I’ve seen many companies get “stuck” somewhere between steps 2 & 3. It’s the point where the PMO and executive staff all have to start thinking in Agile terms. Having an Agile minded CTO and PMO leader makes all the difference in the world!
Chad,
Thanks for the comment. I agree this is sticky place in transition. Teams who “manage up” well during step 1 and 2 can sail through this phase with a good approach. You as an agile team leader needs to educate, show results and tamp down rumors that this is revolution.
Ignore this and you will most likely get stuck there.
I’m definitely missing big the difference between a “cookbook” and a the Flow-Pull-Innovate crib sheet. I realize that the intent is not to give exact direction, but instead to describe the general process of transition – but it seems like a weak distinction to me. I think most “cookbooks” also provide guidelines and will allow that different organizations can work differently.
Furthermore, this faces the same problem of ignoring the human step in these transitions. It will take as long as it takes for people to begin accepting the agile process – letting go of things that used to matter (detailed specs, etc) and embracing things they are not used to (close customer-developer interaction, etc).
Amber,
Thank you for the comment. Let me take a stab at describing the difference between a cookbook and an approach.
A cookbook tells when to add what ingredients to make the dish. A model or approach like this tries to teach about a cuisine of cooking.
A cookbook would tell you when to add coaches, tools, training, and infrastructure. A cookbook tells you how long to take at each step.
I think those are the kinds of things that have to be tailored to your situation. I believe prescriptive approaches have to be tailored, but based on certain cuisine.
(Shameless plug on the metaphor – can’t avoid it:)
At Rally, we serve a healthy dose of pragmatic, bottom-up lead, whole organizational visible and results-based cuisine to agile adoption. But every meal is custom designed with customer’s who want a partner. When they choose to partner with us, they get “success guaranteed” by a set of world class teams of coaches, technical account managers, support engineers and sales professionals. These professionals take our Agile Lifecycle Management platform and help you weave it into your organization in ways that deliver well documented results at each step along the way to being an expert. (See video’s on web page and agile impact report)
I sure hope that helps understand my mental model?
Ryan
Ryan,
Nice post. The further up you go (3-5), the more customized it has to be for every company–guidelines, no cookbook. For example, I recently had to work with a client (hardware & software) who was using a specific product development phase-gate system. Integrating agile & a phase-gate system isn’t something you do for many clients, but it’s necessary in some cases and a multi-step process.
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