A good friend recommended to read the article Why Scrum Should Basically Just Die In A Fire by Giles Bowkett. Giles criticizes SCRUM the way it is implemented and lived in most of the companies. Although, I am no big fan of SCRUM but I also see it advantages especially for some smaller projects. Independent of the advantages and disadvantages of SCRUM he is addressing a far more interesting topic: The agility of the processes themselves.
Many companies try to force "agile" into their software departments in a non-agile way. If you want to successfully implement agile processes in a company you should enable and encourage the people to change their behavior and thinking. They should not do things because somebody tells them to do so. They should do things because they are convinced that it is the right thing to do and that it matters.
The best way to find out what matters and what not is by trying, changing, iterating, skipping approaches that do not work, improving processes that are helpful. Companies change like an organism: they grow or shrink, people are leaving, other people are joining, the product might change, the strategy changes, the culture is evolving continuously and so are the requirements for the development processes. A process is meant to support people to achieve goals. A process you put on people without including them is no support. It is a non-fitting pattern into which you try to press people.
If you have a sort of agile software development in your company (and you should have) you need to ensure that you are creating an environment that enables people to change and evolve the agile processes.
Spotify is a great example how this can happen. Independent of how good or bad the described processes might apply for your company, the way they are constantly challenging the status quo is amazing and inspiring.
You can find the corresponding article of that video here and the second part of the video here.
Many companies try to force "agile" into their software departments in a non-agile way. If you want to successfully implement agile processes in a company you should enable and encourage the people to change their behavior and thinking. They should not do things because somebody tells them to do so. They should do things because they are convinced that it is the right thing to do and that it matters.
The best way to find out what matters and what not is by trying, changing, iterating, skipping approaches that do not work, improving processes that are helpful. Companies change like an organism: they grow or shrink, people are leaving, other people are joining, the product might change, the strategy changes, the culture is evolving continuously and so are the requirements for the development processes. A process is meant to support people to achieve goals. A process you put on people without including them is no support. It is a non-fitting pattern into which you try to press people.
If you have a sort of agile software development in your company (and you should have) you need to ensure that you are creating an environment that enables people to change and evolve the agile processes.
Spotify is a great example how this can happen. Independent of how good or bad the described processes might apply for your company, the way they are constantly challenging the status quo is amazing and inspiring.
You can find the corresponding article of that video here and the second part of the video here.