How to deliver the agile promise

The focus is on delivering Value. Agile delivers on its promise when your business gets that value. If you are struggling to realize this value, then it could be that there are fundamental problems in the way that you have applied Agile methods to your business and projects.

If you're unsure if your Agile Development approach is working for you as it should or could -- Take our quick 12-question needs assessment and to find out your need level.

Here's the top five issues we see that prevent businesses and teams gaining the benefit of Agile methods:

• How to avoid the evangelical all-or-nothing approach - it actually doesn't matter if you don’t fully adopt one of the published Agile methods so long as you get results.
• Maintaining momentum, continuing to deliver results while you get up Agile methods working for you.
• Communication and collaboration issues within development team, and with business partners.
• Too much change, too fast paralyzing your team/ Pace your uptake of new practices to account for your organization/team’s current situation and abilities.
• Slow progress, not getting as much done as planned or expected.

Maintaining momentum

In today's businesses, you don't have the luxury to down tools while you work out how to get Agile methods working for you. You still need to be able to get things done and meet your current commitments. If you don't, your Agile approach may well be considered a failure. To hit the ground running you need to understand how much change you can reasonably take on at one time without impacting your ability to deliver. SPC can ensure you get know how to choose which Agile practices to adopt first - those that will deliver the most positive impact to your projects, and your bottom line.

seeing good collaboration?

Agile methods are different. A fundamental premise is effective communication and collaboration within the team and with business partners. Poor collaboration leads to strained relationships, conflict, and bad decision-making. Poor collaboration is a sign that the team hasn't gelled, or that the business has not fully embraced Agile principles. Fixing collaboration problems is key to success on Agile projects. SPC can help you establish the team culture and direction you need: A clear, common vision so the whole team is pulling in the same direction; agreement on the values and principles that will drive behavior and decisions; keeping discussions business-focused and relevant for the customer.

Too much change, too fast

Agile practices drive fundamental changes in your organization. Change that impacts your culture, your project management and technical processes, and how your work is prioritized and delivered. Trying to change everything at once can paralyze your team. The team may feel overwhelmed, not knowing where to start, or they may reject the Agile approach, falling back to old approaches. SPC coaches are expert at seeing how much change a team can reasonably take on, helping you to understand how much of the Agile methods are brand new vs. tweaking of your team's existing expertise. You should always be looking to leverage as much of what you already know as you can.

not getting as much done as expected

A problem that plagues many new Agile teams is not getting as much done as they had expected, especially in the first few Agile projects. This can be due to various reasons. The team may be taking on more work than they have capacity for, because they are overconfident, or they are afraid to be realistic in their commitments. They may get bogged down in analysis because they are reluctant to make decisions. They may be unable to start development at the beginning of the project/iteration because they aren't able to build up the initial requirements backlog quickly enough.

You to be able to be laser-focused on what needs to be done to deliver the goals of each iteration and each project. No more and no less. SPC coaches can help struggling teams get the focus they need to get things done by ensuring enough requirements are known for development to start, project commitments are based on actual team capacity, and the right decisions get made at the time they are needed.

Want to know more?

• If you have a thorny business issue or Agile question you need answered fill out our on-line enquiry form.
• If you're unsure if your Agile Development approach is working for you as it should or could -- Take our quick 12-question needs assessment
• If you're unsure if an Agile approach meets your needs, read up on the problems Agile can solve for you.
• To learn more, we encourage you to contact an SPC representative. They understand our services from your perspective. You will get an honest picture without the hype. There's no risk, no obligation, and plenty of ways to see if SPC is right for you.

Our goal is to ensure our clients have the right process, technology and skills to deliver lasting change to their development organization. Discover why SPC is right for you.

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