1. Implementing Agile – Described in less
than 700 words
Premise
You do not do Agile, you are agile.
Agile is not a process or methodology.
There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for being Agile.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the world of being Agile and Lean is chock full of new vocabulary or terminology
which sometimes may get in your way. It is important that you, your team and organization come to a common
understanding of the terms and vocabulary you, your team and organization will eventually use as part of being
Agile and Lean.
Available evidence shows most individuals, teams and organizations can become agile, but that we often make
terrible mistakes when we try because we simply are not prepared for the amount of change it requires with respect
to our beliefs, understanding, and perspective.
Being Agile takes wisdom, passion, courage, a desire to be better and openness, especially to change, as we plan a
little, do a little, study/check how we did and adapt; while we collaboratively and adaptively develop and deliver
commercial or operational value iteratively and incrementally.
Where to start
Start with a vision or roadmap (see Figure 1.0) that is embraced and realized by the entire organization from the top
down and bottom up.
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2. Figure 1.0 – Roadmap to Being Agile
Steps to take along the way
1. Create your vision or roadmap to “being Agile” (see Figure 1.0) - it should be broad and not prescriptive
and serve you as your north star guiding you down the path to success of collaboratively and adaptively
developing and delivering commercial or operational value-added system-software iteratively and
incrementally
2. Create an Agile team
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3. An Agile team
Work as one
Are highly collaborative & self-directed
Work in short iterations
Deliver something of commercial or operational value each iteration/sprint
Focus on business priorities
Inspect and adapt
3. While people are motivated from within, an environment must be set-up in which people are able to
motivate themselves
To set up an environment that enables employees to be motivated, leaders need to understand what
the motivational needs of individuals and groups are
Determining the “what's in it for me” for individual employees and workgroups that is consistent
with goals and strategies of the organization is the key to improving motivation for individuals and
groups of employees
4. Become familiar with and adopt the Plan, Do, Study/Check, Act quality improvement cycle as depicted in
Figure 2.0 and a product/project development and delivery cycle based on a framework like Scrum
depicted in Figure 3.0 or a Kanban workflow as depicted in Figure 4.0.
Figure 2.0 – Deming’s Quality Improvement Cycle
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4. Figure 3.0 – Scrum Framework
Figure 4.0 – Kanban Workflow
5. Continue to expand your knowledge by reading (see recommended reading below) and networking with
others traveling the path of being Agile
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5. 6. Frequently, inspect and adapt how you, the team, and organization are doing adding commercial or
operational value as you do so collaboratively, iteratively and incrementally
Danger signs to watch for on your path to “being Agile”
You think and act like you are the smartest person in the room
You are doing more talking than listening
You are doing things right, but not the right things
Your are doing the right things, but are not doing those things right
Taking verbatim and then acting on the words in the Agile Manifesto
You are task-driven not value-driven
Measurement-driven management instead of management-driven measurement
Your definition of “done” is not based on the Customer’s conditions-of-satisfaction
Your emphasis is more on the definition of “being Agile” than the actualization of being agile or the
collaborative development and delivery of a value-adding increment of the product iteratively
Recommended reading
Agile/Lean Product Development and Delivery – Mastering the Art of Change by Russell Pannone
Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell
Bridging the Communication Gap by Gojko Adzic
Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn
User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn
Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash by Mary Poppendieck and Tom
Poppendieck
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6. Bio
Russell Pannone is a systems-software development and delivery practitioner, facilitator, and coach specializing in
collaborative and adaptive systems-software development.
Russell’s passion is to help people succeed.
Russell has worked in the systems-software development and delivery industry for over 25 years in a variety of roles
including developer, team leader, object modeler, data modeler, project manager, scrum master, process engineer,
and instructor.
He has led agile/lean product development and delivery projects and worked with clients in a variety of industries
including state and local government, aerospace, mobile banking, insurance, energy, and telecommunications.
Russell’s mantra is: “Do more listening and less talking while you plan a little, do a little, check/study value-added
and adapt”
Russell can be reached at rpannone@WeBeAgile.com
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