Agile Done Right

Agile as a software development methodology [http://www.agilealliance.org/]. The empowering of teams, the productivity of team which surpasses combined efforts of individuals. The starter fluid to change and improvement. The results orientation. Constant iterations and reflection. All of it provides tremendous potential for an organization to deliver outstanding results.

It can be a tall order to influence the way an organization works. I work for a large financial institution and rigid, risk averse environments are typically hard to change. But I'm proud that our own "Agile Mix" is successful and finding its way to broader and broader audience. I was the main advocate, proponent and preacher of Agile, at the beginning. Not so lonesome, anymore. Given trust and a seed team, we have not only developed out own "Agile Mix". We have also delivered the product with zero variances detected through out QA, on time, on budget. Our plans and estimates were aggressive and REAL. The team loved working in high paced and stimulating setup. They loved owning the product.

Everybody listens and learns from success stories. There is no better way to convince anybody that Agile works, other than when teams love it, while superb results are delivered.

Agile done right will evolve organically, with thin layer of "impediments removal" on top of it. The core values need to be reiterated and reflected in each team's decision. The particular flavor of Agile - XP, Scrum, Lean doesn't quite matter. All of the different methodologies provide yet another set of tools we can choose from, with useful variation in approach to achieving the same thing.

To make Agile work in any organization, you need results. Go get a team and DO IT. No matter the scale of the project, doing it is the only way to figure out what works in your environment and what doesn't. Your "Agile Mix" will always change and evolve - that's a good thing. Set the expectations right, be 100% transparent with all stakeholders. Apply the same rules on the process, which you'd apply on the product. Iterate. Iterate. Iterate.