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"Being" Agile and Lean

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Written by CMC Media Staff   
Monday, 09 November 2009 17:55
"Being" Agile and Lean - December  2009Maneuvering your, the team's and organization's way on the super highway of "being" agile and lean is our focus in this month's edition of the Agile Journal.

Based on empirical knowledge, Agile and Lean system-software development and delivery is achievable but difficult to achieve partly because of individual, team, and organizational beliefs, understanding what it means to be agile and lean and, the willingness to change and adapt.

CoverAdditionally, available evidence shows that most individuals, teams and organizations can become agile and lean, but often fail because becoming agile is a reengineering, re-strategizing and cultural renewal effort. They simply are not prepared for the degree of change required to meet such transformational challenges. 



The reinforcement of this is exemplified in Chapter 1 of Mike Cohn’s latest book Succeeding With Agile - Software Development Using Scrum. In that chapter, Mike insightfully talks about why becoming Agile is difficult, but worth the effort. 



In this month’s edition, we provide you with articles that, once read, will give you insights and enable you to begin to answer such questions as: 


  • What makes being agile and lean difficult?
  • What makes being agile and lean easy?
  • What are some of the danger signs to look for along the way?
  • What works?
  • What doesn’t work?
  • How do I get started?
  • Where can I seek help?
This month's Agile Journal contributors share their insights- based on valuable lessons they have learned along their own paths to “being” agile and lean.

Alan Shalloway and James R. Trott in their article "Where to Begin Your Transition to Lean-Agile" emphasize the importance of getting your bearings and keeping your eye on the big picture. Bob Aiello shares a real life story that exemplifies the essence of being adaptive. Don McGreal and Michael McCullough in their article "Agile, Lean, or Something in Between" present some of the promises of both agile and lean when implemented separately and also explore when one set may be a better fit over the other or how they may be optimally combined. My article "Implementing Agile – Described in less than 700 words" distills how to implement agile down to the bare bones.

This month's Agile Journal will serve you well as sign posts as you, your teams and organization embark and maneuver your way towards the adoption and actualization of being agile and lean; collaboratively and adaptively developing and delivering value-based system-software in a continuous flow incrementally.

One of the greatest joys of this season is the opportunity to say THANK YOU for your readership and contributions to the agile community and to wish you the very best for the New Year.

Sincerely,
Russell Pannone
Editor
Agile Journal
Featured articles...

Where to Begin Your Transition to Lean-Agile
by Alan Shalloway and James R. Trotty
It is easy for a team to transition to Lean-Agile software development: Pick a good pilot project, get some training, re-arrange the workspace, learn the process, maybe use a coach. It has been done thousands of times. It is easy but all too often, there is no benefit for the organization. The goal is not making teams agile but making the business agile. This is a bit harder. Build your transition plan around the business and everyone – customers, business, and teams – will succeed.
Read More >>

Agile and Lean - Recognizing the Synergy
by Bob Aiello
Becoming Agile involves a journey that, although challenging at times, will help you achieve success with your software development projects. The path to Agility is not without its bumps and curves. First, Agile is a completely new way of thinking that will challenge many of your assumptions and prior experiences. Agility is all consuming – you don’t just adopt Agile – you become Agile. Similarly, Lean requires a significant paradigm shift that turns out to have much in common with Agility. It is no wonder that many companies are finding that Lean Agile principles are the key to successfully improving their software development processes.
Read More >>


Implementing Agile - Described in Less Than 700 Words
by Russell Pannone
Premise
You do not do Agile, you are Agile.
Agile is not a process or methodology.
There is no one-size-fits all recipe for being Agile.
Fortunately or unfortunately the world of being Agile and Lean is chalk full of new vocabulary or terminology which sometimes may get in your way. It is important that you, your team and organization come to a common understanding of the terms and vocabulary you, your team and organization will eventually use as part of being Agile and Lean.
Read More >>

More articles...

Agile Lean or Something in Between
by Don McGreal and Michael McCullough
Agile, and more recently lean, have dramatically shaped the landscape of software development practices. The reason is simple, they both promise to deliver higher quality products to the market faster.

We will examine some of these agile and lean promises separately and explore when one set may be a better fit over the other or how they may be combined.
Read More >>


Play Ball® - The New and Improved Agile Software Development Methodology
by Mark Lines
Overview
We all know that terms such as “iteration”, “project manager”, and “daily stand-up meetings” are extremely difficult for software development professionals to comprehend.  To simplify things, we have created a better methodology fashioned after a metaphor of the sport of Baseball.
Read More >>


Agile Project Management - Part 1
by Daniel Markham
One of the first questions we get when implementing and training agility in organizations is about accounting. So much of what happens in an organization revolves around the numbers -- risk/reward, investment/return, burn-rate, etc. Many times developers and technology management gets wrapped up in all the goodness of change and then we forget to bring the accounting folks along.
Read More >>


Battle of the Books: "Cage Fight" of 5 Releases on Agile Adoption/Leadership
by Brad Appleton
The past few months have seen an epic spurt of new books on the subject of leading and adopting Lean/Agile/Scrum in the enterprise. So rather than reviewing each of them individually, for those readers who don’t want to “break their book budget” this holiday season, I thought it might be best to compare and contrast them a bit to see where each is best suited.
Read More >>

Last Updated on Wednesday, 08 September 2010 10:04
 
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