Agile pondering: Why use an agile approach?

The theme of the blog this month is “Getting a Fresh Start.”  In order to get a fresh start it is important to know WHY you want to do it!  I’ve seen many presentations over the years about why agile is something a software development organization should use.  I’ve seen this sort of presentation called “The Business Case for Agility” and several other names.  I’ve seen people walk out of those presentations, go back to their organizations, implement agile – and fail miserably.  Clearly having a reason for using agile is not the only important thing.  I think many of these presentations are presenting some possible reasons for using agile, but they sometimes miss a key point – WHY are those reasons important.  In the spirit of Agile For All’s second agile belief, I’m going to try to explain WHY some of the popular reasons are important to consider.

Know why, not just how. Too many people are learning the “hows” of agile and not the “whys” that drive successful process. This causes much more failure than is necessary. We always teach whys and not just hows.

Having worked with clients that range from very small to very large I’ve observed an unusual trend.  Each client believes their problems and issues are unique because of their corporate culture, industry, people or something else.

However, I’ve also observed another unusual trend which goes directly against the first one.  Most of the time my clients are wrong in the belief they are unique!  Certainly there are some differences.  That has to be true or every company would be identical.  Many times even the ways the problems manifest themselves are different.  I know that sounds strange.  How can the problems be different if I just said the problems aren’t unique?  I’m not looking at the problems, I’m looking at the CAUSES!  The underlying causes are the same or very similar but the way those causes manifest as problems may be different!

Below are 5 of the popular reasons given for switching to agile (and one extra I added because I could).  I’ve added the problems typically addressed, but I’ve also added some underlying causes and WHY an organization would might see those results and want to address them.

This list is FAR from exhaustive.  I am sure there are 20-30 items in causes I have not listed.  I just wanted to make the point that the obvious problems being “solved” by agile actually trace back to potential issues which may are may not be directly addressed by an agile process.  For example, will organization structure be addressed by switching to agile?  Probably not, but it WILL be exposed as an issue if agile is done properly.  Organizations need to be prepared for 2 possibilities for each problem: 1) it is caused by agile, or 2) it is exposed by agile.  Most problems will be of type 2 and very few will be of type 1.  Some things may be caused by agile, such as the stress it causes as teams get used to meeting iteration deadlines.   However, most problems will be of type 2.  Are you ready to admit it and deal with those as they are exposed??? [note, this technique is based on a blog entry by Vikrama Dhiman where even more details for a good retrospective can be found]

I know the table above has a LOT of entries in it.  If you don’t understand one please leave a comment and I’ll try to clarify it.

Are you depressed now?  Don’t be.  Agile really can help solve most of those problems simply by exposing them!  It is often too easy to hide the elephant in the room.  Get it exposed then deal with it and your organization will get better!

Until next time you should look at the list of causes and see how many fit your organization.  After doing that exercise maybe you should call (303-766-0917) or email me so I can help you in Making Agile a Reality^® for your organization!  I’ll offer 30 minutes of free agile or scrum coaching to the first 10 people who email me mentioning this blog entry.  The coaching will start out via email questions, but will include a phone conversation if necessary.  If your organization is struggling, let me help!