Monday, September 30, 2013

Agile in a Flash 11

Got Organizational Obstinance – The Idea
Agile in a Flash by Jeff Langr and Tim Ottinger (card #11)


> It can’t work here. “Our company is uniquely complex.”
> They won’t let us. “Our culture doesn’t support it.”
> Guilt by association. “Agile is like something else that failed.”
> Means/ends juxtaposition. “It doesn’t support our management style.”
> Inferiority complex. “We’re too afraid to improve the code.”
> Superiority complex. “We’ve been shipping on time just fine.”
> Rejection of insufficient miracle. “But it won’t solve all our problems.”


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How will your team respond to the typical excuses when they want to try agile?


It can’t work here. Agile isn’t a rigid set of practices. You need only a team willing to start with the core values and incrementally grow together.


They won’t let us. Start small by tackling a few agile practices, and win over management with success and the real data behind it.


Guilt by association. A nonagile, semi-agile, or other nonwaterfall method may have failed for you in the past. That’s no reason to avoid a proper agile project.


Means/ends juxtaposition. Software management structures, ceremonies, and documents support developing software, not the other way around. Help your organization adopt new structures to support agile development.


Inferiority complex. Agile improves developers via teamwork and doesn’t leave people behind in their cubes while hoping the superstars deliver.


Superiority complex. If you’re perfect, why are you even considering agile? :-) If not, welcome to a world where we know we can always do better.


Rejection of insufficient miracle. “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” —Samuel Johnson.


Civilization World Wonder quote: "O, let not the pains of death which come upon thee enter into my body. I am the god Tem, and I am the foremost part of the sky, and the power which protecteth me is that which is with all the gods forever."

–The Book of the Dead, translated by Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge

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