 Without highly-skilled team members, Agile teams will not succeed. This does not mean that organizations must to overhaul or outsource their existing staff. Rather, they must leverage the business and subject matter expertise within existing staff and teams, and provide the necessary technical and process training so that their staff can excel with Agile practices.
Previously, I defined the four key initiatives that I think are necessary for Agile adoption in 2008: investing in staff training and mentoring to build an internal Agile organization; taking incremental steps towards Agile adoption without feeling pressure to adopt any methodology in its entirety; leveraging others' best practices and deliverables as a means to jumpstart Agile initiatives; and investing in metrics and techniques to provide visibility, publicize Agile successes, and easily comply with governance programs. This article focuses on resources for and approaches to Agile training and mentoring. I'll drill down into each of these topics in subsequent Agile Journal articles.
First a caution: similar to the days of object-oriented everything, the term "Agile" shows up in many companies' names and descriptions. This can be a way for independents and small organizations to gain visibility in the Agile industry. However, with this plethora of Agile consulting firms and independent software vendors (ISVs) comes the challenge of separating the wheat from the chaff. Be sure to scrutinize individual resumes, references, and specific experiences within Agile consulting and tool companies.
Where to Turn
Despite the increasing number of Agile-something companies, don't be wary of small firms. Most of the leading Agile experts are independent consultants or work for small- to mid-sized specialized firms. The leading Agile experts tend to work for boutique firms, such as ObjectMentor, NetObjectives, Three Rivers Institute, and Mountain Goat Software. They continue to lead the industry with ideas and innovations. In addition to custom consulting and training services, these thought leaders frequently speak at industry conferences.
It's easy to check credentials and references, and in many cases these independent firms may be the most cost-effective solution for specific in-house training. Training and mentoring services for Agile teams are available from a wide range of suppliers. However, informal networking and discussions at industry events is commonly viewed as equally valuable (if not more so) than formal training sessions.
Industry groups. National or international organizations, such as the DSDM Consortium, Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), and Scrum Alliance, bring a wide range of practitioners and managers together around common methodologies and philosophies. The DSDM Consortium hosts introductory Agile events and also those for more experienced teams. Networking is the key to many Agile startups, and all of our electronic collaboration technologies cannot replace good old face-to-face interactions. Local and regional interest groups provide these forums, especially for those without travel budgets. For example, the Agile Denver group holds monthly meetings, enjoys support from a range of sponsors, and provides a vehicle for sharing presentations and other Agile resources. Other groups host regional conferences (e.g., 2008 Scrum Gathering in April in Chicago) and meetings (e.g., APLN in New York and Washington, DC).[i] These industry events offer participants a means to network with others, typically in smaller settings, and hone in on specific practices or industry issues.
The Agile University is becoming a central point for many Agile courses, ranging from planning to development to testing to management. This is really the best place to go for training classes as well as a list of industry events. It is a collaborative effort led by leaders from ISVs and consulting firms, who aim to "instill Agile principles, share knowledge of Agile practices and advance adoption of Agile approaches." The university provides a framework for individual firms' courses, including marketing and support services.
Consulting firm and ISVs. Consultants use training and mentoring as a lead generator, to get in the door and prove their Agile expertise. There are more and more Agile consultancies springing up each year, in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and recently in South America - too many to list in this article. You can find many of their best practices in articles in the Agile Journal; we frequently solicit these consultants' input as they have led many of the early/large Agile initiatives around the world.
Vendors always offer training (e.g., courses, Webinars) around their tools. When the tools are oriented towards project management or testing, they are typically Agile process-agnostic. So you'll learn essentials of XP, Scrum, or Lean in the context of an Agile tool like Rally, VersionOne, or Agitar. Traditional application development and lifecycle management tool vendors (e.g., IBM, Microsoft, Serena) have also begun Agile initiatives, many of which emphasize use of legacy tools on Agile initiatives (leverage what you have) and transitioning from legacy to iterative and Agile processes.
Conferences. There's much to gained from the new wave of Agile conferences, particularly in the networking and informal discussions common to their agendas. Recently, I've found many of the formal sessions to be either too introductory or too theoretical (again, akin to the early OO conferences) but the agendas are wide-ranging and are increasingly focused on best practices. Coming up this year,
Agile 2008, sponsored by the Agile Alliance and ISV members, promises coverage of "techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of agile software development." SD Expo West has an even broader scope, including sessions for Agile teams (primarily in the People, Process, and Methods track) but also for other methodologies and technologies. The APLN sponsors Agile management-oriented conferences, including a winter Agile Leadership event in February in Dallas.
What about Blogs? You're not in the consulting, writing, or product business these days if you don't have a blog. The good news is that, at least in the Agile community, many of the best minds are sharing their experiences in this accessible format, even if their motivation is really to promote another offering. These blogs are a great supplement for independent consultants, who traditionally relied on the conference circuit for self-promotion. Of course, there's also a lot of garbage out there and the typical plethora of inane ramblings. A good idea is to start with the leading tool and consulting companies, as their staff have the license to blog in conjunction with the products, and you can assume that the writers are basing their comments on real customer experiences. Just be sure to block out lots of time to sift through them.
Being Agile About Training and Mentoring - Two Common Approaches
In the waterfall days, we would send staff to a series of methodology training classes as they progressed through the life cycle (e.g., introduce design techniques and tools after the requirements phase was completed). This just-in-time training was typically the best way to teach new techniques - usually in the context of a lifecycle management tool - and build upon deliverables created in earlier phases.
Agile teams, of course, do not work that way, and so organizations must approach Agile training differently. It's still the case that developers and managers can't be expected to turn on a dime, and so deluging them with too much training up front will be a waste of time. Agile teams also cite just-in-time training and on-the-job mentoring as the best way to absorb the new practices.
Frequently, I see companies starting in one of two ways. Some choose to emphasize team management, and so they start with core Scrum training and don't worry about the specific development practices used on the team. (Scrum is intended to work with a variety of development practices.) This provides the team with a framework for delivering iterative releases, determining priorities, collaborating with business customers, and approaching new types of metrics. Then, over time, the team can introduce development practices within a Scrum sprint.
The second common approach is to start with three specific development practices: continuous integration, test-driven development, and build management. Without these core development practices, it's difficult to achieve two- or even four-week iterations and maintain quality code. Training for this approach requires a three-fold line of attack: training developers and testers together, integrating SCM and build management tools, and elevating the value of the test as a core deliverable.
Either of these can be a good starting place for building internal Agile capability. Teams then progress to additional Agile practices and integration with the PMO and other management organizations, as they scale their Agile initiatives. But just these two core approaches - team management and continuous integration - can provide the framework for initial Agile projects and a strong foundation on which to build an Agile organization.
About the Author
Liz Barnett is the Editor in Chief of the Agile Journal and Principal Analyst at EZ Insight Inc. Previously Liz spent 10 years as a Vice President and Research Analyst at Forrester Research, joining Forrester as a result of its acquisition of Giga Information Group. Liz held management positions at Accenture, PepsiCo, and Atelier Research. She also was the Research Director for the advanced software development and advanced network computing research services at New Science Associates, prior to its acquisition by Gartner Group. Liz earned her B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering at Cornell University.
[i] You can find APLN chapters throughout the world at http://apln.org/localchapters.html.
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