How to Start with Agile Transformation?

I recently got an opportunity to work with a team who have heard about "Agile" but had never practiced it. There might be difficulty in changing their mindset to follow Agile and make them an Agile team. I will be sharing my personal experience of the initial transformation journey of team(s). 

Does the team or any of the member had really understood the “why” of Agile ceremonies? Of course, by following these ceremonies, teams will improve. But it will help the team more if they understand the proper principles behind performing these ceremonies. Had we ever taught them why we are performing these and what benefits the team will get if they follow them? I think here comes the important role of a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach.

The Scrum Master or Agile Coach is an entity who is responsible for performing Scrum ceremonies effectively and religiously. He can do that by making teams understand the benefits of performing them. Each ceremony has its own importance and benefit if performed correctly. It’s a responsibility of Scrum Master and Agile Coach to train the team’s and let them know the why Scrum processes to be followed. 

Below are the steps which were performed for successful Agile transformation:

1. Retrospective — conduct a retrospective with the team before implementing or starting anything. This will help them understand the problems teams are facing or have faced until that moment of time. To cite an example, I came with to point which every team faces: a sudden requirement inclusion or change, even on the last day of the sprint. At this particular moment, let them know about backlog refinement, planning and sprint commitments which will not change in between the sprint.
2.  Training — Train them with Agile processes and benefits of performing Scrum ceremonies. Soon, the team will be seen pushing back the sudden changes and inclusions in the sprint. Also, it will win your trust and respect, which are the building blocks of the Agile team.
3. Implementation — Slowly introduce few Agile process improvements and keep adding process improvement steps over time as the team achieves expertise in previous steps. Sudden inclusion of all the processes may make team reluctant to follow those as it is hard to understand and follow all the process steps at once in a team along with the development activities.
4. Release — This is the most important step as I have seen organizations in much hustle and bustle at this moment. Keep automating your release process and keep improving on the issues you face in earlier releases. "Inspect and Adapt" is the basic criteria for improving this. This will help with continuous integration and continuous development.

The team will feel the immediate process implementation as a burden over their daily work. It is better to train them first on the benefits of following Agile with a continuous retrospective for improvement. All the processes should not be implemented at once, but should be introduced slowly and in steps. In this way, the team will take active participation in getting things done in an Agile way and will become self-organized.