Agile Best Practices and Pitfalls - Summer 2007
Volume 2 - Number 7 - Download the PDF Version -

Summer is a great time to relax, enjoy the weather, and reflect on all the progress made during the year. There’s certainly a lot to talk about in the Agile community. This summer issue of the Agile Journal coincides with the sold-out Agile 2007 conference in Washington, DC. The size of the conference says it all – 1200 attendees will be able to choose from 615 sessions given by over 500 speakers! Did you realize that there was so much Agile experience in the industry?

In addition, the results of the 2nd Annual 'State of Agile Development' Survey, conducted by VersionOne and The Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), are hot off the press. Over 1600 people from 71 countries around the world responded to questions regarding their use of Agile processes. Among its many points, the survey confirms the increasing use of Agile practices on multiple and distributed teams within a company and also highlights the many challenges that teams face.

The Agile Journal contributors are also sharing some of their best practices and even some pitfalls they’ve hit along the way. Most agree that people lie at the heart of Agile teams’ success. Amr Elssamadisy and Ashley Johnson argue that successful Agile adoption is predicated on “personal agility.” To improve productivity and increase the value they deliver to the organizations, individuals on an Agile team must take responsibility and demonstrate the ability to recognize change and act upon it. Hans Christian Alnaes and Odd Martin Solem use the metaphor of a project “athlete” to demonstrate the importance of keeping team members in shape and not overloaded, and allowing staff to reflect on past experiences and regroup to stay in “peak condition.”

From a more technical perspective, developers can leverage others’ experiences with specific Agile practices. Ross Pettit, ever the pragmatist, maintains that developers should mature to best practices rather than expecting to achieve them from day one. He emphasizes build and collaboration as two areas in which teams can steadily mature and improve their success. Peter Vaihansky and Anna Obuhova, who specialize in offshore Agile projects in Central and Eastern Europe, share specific best practices in the Agile testing arena.

Not only should a team seek to adopt best practices, it should work to avoid pitfalls and poor practices. Alan Shalloway suggests that one way to improve bad Agile practices is to identify and remedy “Lean Anti-patterns” – recurring violations of Lean principles that impede the ability of an Agile team to succeed.

During the second half of 2007, the Agile Journal will explore Agile communities and collaboration, specific implementation approaches and related tools, and a range of new Agile initiatives. We invite our readers to share their experiences with the Agile Journal community. If you’d like to contribute an article on this or another upcoming topic, go to the “Letters to the Editor” in the forum at AgileJournal.com and send us your ideas.

Liz Barnett
Editor in Chief
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