Agile: The art of the possible.
Rule 1 = Keep It Simple
There is still a heavy buzz about agile and its benefits. This is because it works! However, it can also fail badly. Agile may be easy to learn, but it is hard to master. It is hard to keep things simple.
It may seem surprising, but most people tend to think about things long enough to make them complicated. Humans seem to like packaging things up, rather than laying them bare. Simple always seems to be, well, too easy. However, the "difficult" bit is actually keeping things simple. We have many years of experience practically installing and nurturing agile teams in large and small companies. We understand the pitfalls and how to address them to allow success to shine through. Let Smartatech help your company to make the right simple changes at the right time, to ensure your agile rollout does not turn into a train wreck, and result in "agile" (rather than lack of mastery) being the accepted reason for all your recent woes... |
Rule 2 = Don't Hide Anything
One of the most infuriating aspects of "traditional" or "waterfall" approaches to delivering software, is the rigid adherence to some plan invented at the beginning (or before) of the project (complete with marketing driven deadline).
Since, as everyone knows, it will not be possible to follow that plan once more is discovered and executed, the approach is typically to fudge and hide what is really happening, and present the reliable progress through this plan to management, with the odd escalation. It is deceit and reluctance to confront the reality of what is and is not possible in the allotted time. With agile, there is no hiding what is going on. Equally, there is no desire to cover up reality to protect the decision makers. Everything is made visible, so that those with the power to decide on the course of the project can do so, and it is not up to the team building the software to figure out how to do the impossible. |
