Agile Development Blog

Just published in Dr. Dobb’s is my article on Agile Social Contracts;  It covers the process of Agile rollout planning and the burning need for a clear commitment to your teams and organization.  What is not as well covered are the other four components.

I make the argument in the article that Agile enterprise adoption is easy, if you are prepared and crisp with the right structure and discipline.

Here are the five items you need to be successful at Agile release planning or Agile Enterprise Rollout planning:

Release Planning Structure		Agile Enterprise Rollout Structure
Team – Cross-Functional Development Team	1	Team – Cross-Function Transition/Steering Team
Commitment -  To the Definition of Done	2	Commitment – To changes in external metrics
Contract – Team Norms	3	Contract – Social Contract with the Organization
Roadmap – Product Increments	4	Roadmap – Flow-Pull-Innovate transition steps
Vision – Product/Service	5	Vision – Organization, Process & Technology

Agile Rollout planning is best done like sprint or release planning. This is what I and others mean when we say “using Agile to rollout Agile.“  We use the same methods, structures, and process to rollout Agile as we do to manage our development.  This gets senior managers and executives talking and experiencing Agile along with all the practicing teams.  It leads the transition team to the benefits of visibility, alignment and frequent feedback cycles.  When this is done, it makes Agile Enterprise rollouts as easy as Agile software development.

For more details on our approach to enterprise Agile rollouts, please see the post An Alternative to Agile Adoption Cookbooks – Flow, Pull, Innovate.   This approached is based on a concept of  Shu-Ha-Ri (See Alan Atlas’ post on DIY vs. Shu-Ha-Ri).

For a detailed example on a rollout plan that uses the Flow-Pull-Innovate approach – see the post Agile Transition Plans – an example.

About the Author: Ryan Martens is a backyard chicken farmer, 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.

I have always answered the question “Where does Agile not work?” with the answer: “We have customers in all forms, geographies, and technologies working in Agile. It works everywhere!“

Of course that is my Agile Convert persona coming screaming through…

In his article “Agile Processes Go Lean” on the Dr. Dobbs portal, Forrester analyst Dave West does a great job illustrating the true challenges and roadblocks in successful Agile adoption beyond the team. His research across numerous sources, collaboration with Tom Grant and ability to synthesize these concepts makes this article a must-read for executives in software development organizations.

Dave sums it up nicely:

“The problems, broadly, tend to be technical, cultural, or organizational. Technical problems relate to infrastructure, tools, and architecture, and are often the most visible of the changes involved. But many companies find the cultural and organizational issues are the hardest to resolve.”

“When a development organization uses the approach to transform itself, it often runs into problems with other parts of the company that haven’t undergone similar transformations. Clashes come with the business operations, governance, and organizational structures, among other areas. For example, hierarchical organizations may struggle with agile development’s quick, iterative review cycles and decision making.”

In the past few months, I’ve talked with Dave and Tom about the opportunities and success of large-scale and successful Agile adoptions (beyond single teams and beyond simple flow) using examples from our customers and even our own internal processes. I’m excited to see analysts tackle the meaty topic of scaling Agile and Lean with real data and customer stories.

Further Reading:

• Lean Webinar Q&A Part 3: Championing Agile
• Scaling Lean and Agile Development – Ask Bas and Craig
• What Are Your Favorite Resources for Lean and Agile?