I've read a number of articles lately that make the claim that Kanban is better than Scrum because it doesn't require a great deal of organizational change. I first came across this argument in some of David Anderson's writings, including his: Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change For Your Technology Business. The idea is that you simply start measuring work-in-progress…
When it comes to transitioning to agile a lot of companies wonder whether it is best to start small or go all in. In this article scrum and agile expert Mike Cohn looks at both options and gives readers the information they need.
With this in mind, Kenny Rubin, Laurie Williams and I created the Comparative Agility assessment (CA), which is available for free online. Like the Shodan Adherence Survey and Agile:EF, a CA assessment can be based on individual responses to survey questions. However, it was also designed to be completed by an experienced ScrumMaster, coach, or consultant on behalf of a team or company based on interviews or observation.
People resist changing to Scrum for many different reasons. Some may resist because they are comfortable with their current work and colleagues. It has taken years to get to their current levels in the organization, to be on this team, to work for that manager, or to know exactly how to do their jobs each day. Others may resist changing to Scrum because of a fear of the…
Historically, when an organization needed to change, it undertook a “change program.” The change was designed, had an identifiable beginning and ending, and was imposed from above. This worked well in an era when change was necessary only once every few years. But in today’s fast-paced, ever changing environment, it makes more sense to create agile organizations, ready to…
None of the agile processes as described by their originators is perfect for your organization. Any may be a good starting point, but you will need to tailor the process to more precisely fit the unique circumstances of your organization, individuals, and industry. As Alistair Cockburn once told me, “Having a chance to change or personalize a process to fit themselves seems…
Mountain Goat Software client Salesforce.com successfully completed one of the quickest, large-scale, big-bang agile transitions ever, involving over 200 developers. At the Agile 2007 conference they shared this presentation on how they did it.
Change may be a constant, but it doesn't have to be constant. By following some simple guidelines, you can choose when and if you will allow adjustments to planned work during an iteration.
Scrum was designed to be lightweight, so if your team is complaining that it's too heavy, you need to do some digging to find out what's weighing them down. This article defines some factors that could be adding to their load.
A key consideration in adopting an iterative process is selecting how long your iterations will be. Mike Cohn discusses the issues to consider when determining whether your team's iterations should last two weeks, three weeks, or longer.
