Agile Thinkers
One of the biggest challenges of Agile development is introducing its ideas and techniques beyond the project team using them. Project teams tpically see direct, and often immediate, benefits of using agile techniques but for those outside of the project it takes the right leadership and direction to enable agile adoption across the enterprise.
Recently a colleague and mentor at BMC Software, Israel Gat, was interviewed for Agile Thinkers regarding his experience in introducing agile techniques at BMC Software. It's an interesting article and provides a good overview of the 'success criteria' required to introduce agile approaches across a large organization. This is one of the more challenging aspects of managing agile projects since oftentimes there are other groups and stakeholders that don't have the same understanding or experiences with agile techniques. Without an effective organizational champion it can be difficult to extend agile beyond the project level which saps it of its real benefits which can be applied across an organizational's entire value chain. The Agile Thinkers blog collects first hand experiences from leaders who have been at the forefront of introducing agile techniques across their organizations. These experiences are invaluable in culling ideas on how to approach the common problems that often confront culture and organizational change.
However, what particularly impressed me by the Agile Thinkers blog is it also draws upon agile thinkers that in my opinion see the next progression in agile development (a topic I covered on my personal blog called Post Agilism). Authors and thinkers like Alistair Cockburn, Tom Glib and the Poppendiecks, all see agile as focusing on 'business value' and emphasizing discipline and measurement to drive continuous improvements. All of these authors bring some refreshing pragmatism to agile development particularly those of us involved in managing these kinds of initiatives.
However, what particularly impressed me by the Agile Thinkers blog is it also draws upon agile thinkers that in my opinion see the next progression in agile development (a topic I covered on my personal blog called Post Agilism). Authors and thinkers like Alistair Cockburn, Tom Glib and the Poppendiecks, all see agile as focusing on 'business value' and emphasizing discipline and measurement to drive continuous improvements. All of these authors bring some refreshing pragmatism to agile development particularly those of us involved in managing these kinds of initiatives.