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Where to Start
Hi all, I face daunting the first steps, ones I’m sure you are all familiar, I want to implement an Agile, principally SCRUM approach for my company.
I’m the Development Manager for a medium sized software provider (50 or so employees), together with two other department heads, our Implementation Manger who encompassing test and Support Manager who picks up the pieces, we have long suffered and tried several method to manage our products, always falling back to almost daily releases, poor test, poor specifications and commercially driven goals.
Obviously its not uncommon and a tough run, but after discovering Agile and Scrum I saw the light! I have read up, ran day to day scenarios past the other dept. heads and explained the benefits to the directors, we are all sold. Now I want to take up the challenge of making it happen and it’s all on me to educate and implement SCRUM for our business. I can come up with a plan based upon articles and techniques i have read, but its seems there are no set rules, I would really prefer to hear it from someone who has been successful in this same starting step.
I don’t need a full working solution and don’t expect it to work straight off, but would love some sage advice in getting the ball rolling. e.g. Did you start with just one iteration planned out? How did you structure your teams? What worked in terms of starting and stopping a sprint? Re-education of customers and sales teams? etc.
Thank you,
Ryan
Views: 18
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Hobson on -
Wow 12-1 PDT...kinda of early for me, but will sign up for the link. Ryan.
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Permalink Reply by Hannes Buhrmann on -
Ryan
Perhaps you should have a look at what the biggest problems in your current delivery process is, to help you determine which elements of the Agile approach would be the most beneficial.
If you manage to address just one of the issues where the business hurts the most in your first project, it would be so much easier to maintain a high level of enthusiasm for Agile in both your customer / business communities and with your development teams.
Do you deliver code on time and on spec, but with bad quality? Then perhaps you should focus on test driven development / continuous integration / automated regression testing.
Do you deliver a good quality product, but too late? Then place a real heavy emphasis on iterative estimation and prioritisation - you might not increase your development throughput, but at least you can ensure that highest priority features are delivered first, and you will have an opportunity to constantly manage your product owners' expectations.
Do you deliver to specification, but then find out the real requirements are not exactly matching specs? Then focus on short iterations and constant feedback to the product owners / intended user community, so that mismatches can be identified and addressed as soon as possible.
It is obviously not possible to have a totally singular focus, but by solving the biggest problem first (and manage expectations around the lower priority problems), you will gain credibility and commitment.
Think of your software delivery capability as a product under development, identify the highest priority problems (as defined by your customers), focus on these first and be comfortable living with the lower priority problems . In other words, be Agile about your Agile transition. Easier said than done ;-)
Last point - I recommend reading Leading Lean Software Development by Tom and Mary Poppendieck.
Hope this helps, a little bit.
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Permalink Reply by Agile Developer Notes on
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© 2012 Created by Kelly Waters.
See article(http://www.agiledevelopernotes.com/2011/08/transitioning-to-agile-d...) on highlighting various things to consider while transitioning to an agile method.
It is a brief article, but is quite helpful for someone who is looking for a start.