DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
View Events Video Library
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Integrating PostgreSQL Databases with ANF: Join this workshop to learn how to create a PostgreSQL server using Instaclustr’s managed service

Mobile Database Essentials: Assess data needs, storage requirements, and more when leveraging databases for cloud and edge applications.

Monitoring and Observability for LLMs: Datadog and Google Cloud discuss how to achieve optimal AI model performance.

Automated Testing: The latest on architecture, TDD, and the benefits of AI and low-code tools.

Related

  • Organizational Agility With SAFe in Turkcell IFTS Directorate
  • Agile Estimation: Techniques and Tips for Success
  • Agile Metrics and KPIs in Action
  • Agile Frameworks in Action: Enhancing Flexibility in Service Delivery

Trending

  • REST vs. Message Brokers: Choosing the Right Communication
  • Mastering Persistence: Why the Persistence Layer Is Crucial for Modern Java Applications
  • Next.js vs. Gatsby: A Comprehensive Comparison
  • Getting Started With Prometheus Workshop: Instrumenting Applications
  1. DZone
  2. Culture and Methodologies
  3. Agile
  4. There is No "Do Agile," There is Only "Be Agile"

There is No "Do Agile," There is Only "Be Agile"

Martin Hinshelwood user avatar by
Martin Hinshelwood
·
Sep. 09, 13 · Interview
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
Share
5.77K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

I commented on Scrum is Hard to Adopt and Disruptive to Your Organization before and I think that, for most companies, this is just beyond their comprehension. They are fundamentally misunderstanding agile and trying to do agile rather than be agile.

There are is no training or certification or even process that can provide you with that understanding. There is nothing but deep organizational change and hard work that can create that lean-agile way of doing things that provides many companies with so much value.

If you want to be agile you will need to embrace:

  • giving up management command-and-control
  • going and seeing what the problems are rather than looking at endless reports
  • encouraging and supporting people to serve as hands-on-master programmers for 15+ years
  • close engagement between the hands-on developers and customers, without intermediates
  • managers and architect who are pair-programming coaches
  • real transparency – of delays, what’s wrong each day, …
  • The candour to say “we don’t know”
  • stopping sequential lifecycle practices and mind-set
  • empirical process control
  • replacing cube farms with team rooms and visual management

-from Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Large, Multisite, and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum

I do not believe that it is possible to sell Agile to a company, they must come to the realization of what it entails themselves. Oh, you can introduce them to many of the practices and encourage them to experiment. You can teach individuals TDD and other test-first methods, but all you are doing is priming the pan and creating an environment where that spark of agility can smoulder. Then they will come to you.

I was recently contacted by a customer that I have worked with before to help them become more … well ... agile. They feel that they have a good understanding of the mechanics of Scrum and that they are gaining value at the team level, but they want more. They want to realize the greater organizational reality of agility and not just follow the rules.

In short they want to build people, then products.

There are a great many thing that we can look at but until I can "go see" how folks are working there is no way I can have any idea of a plan. I can, however, imply that there are some things that, while not constants, are good bets to look at and for:

  • Discourage "fake agile" – The first thing to look at is if they really do have just the mechanics down or if they are starting to be agile
  • Encourage "Communities of Practice (CoP)" – Sometimes referred to as guilds, these CoP allow and encourage folks interested in a practice to collaborate, regardless of the affinity they have to a particular discipline.
  • Encourage "go see" – Encouraging managers to go to where the work is boing done will be immensely more valuable than looking at reports

If we can get some amount of time on-site to investigate and work on some of these things, then that would make me happy. I am really looking forward to seeing how they have been getting on and how many of the issues we identified in the last engagement have changed.

Here is looking forward to future collaboration and experimentation.



agile

Published at DZone with permission of Martin Hinshelwood, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Organizational Agility With SAFe in Turkcell IFTS Directorate
  • Agile Estimation: Techniques and Tips for Success
  • Agile Metrics and KPIs in Action
  • Agile Frameworks in Action: Enhancing Flexibility in Service Delivery

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: