General Change Approach

ABOUT THIS COURSE   Other sections of this course describe the specific Agile practices that make up the details of an Agile adoption. This chapter discusses adoption itself, a form of organizational change. Whether you’re partway through an Agile adoption that’s struggling or you’re just beginning a new adoption, this chapter describes how to make your adoption successful.

At the 40,000-foot view, the intuitive approach to Agile adoption seems straightforward:

Phase 1: Begin with a pilot team. Charter an initial team to trial an approach to Agile development in your organization. Work out the stumbling blocks at the single-team level.

Phase 2: Propagate Agile practices to one or more additional teams. Roll out Agile practices to additional teams, making use of lessons learned from the pilot team. Establish communities of practice to share lessons learned. Work out additional kinks, including inter-team issues.

Phase 3: Roll out Agile practices to the entire organization. Making use of lessons learned in Phase 1 and 2, roll out Agile practices to the remainder of the organization. Use the team members from Phase 1 and 2 as coaches for the remaining teams.

This is all logical and intuitive, and it even kind of works. But it omits important elements needed to support a successful rollout, and it overlooks a pivotal relationship between pilot teams and larger scale rollouts.