| "Agile" is an approach to software development that has helped software teams to become more responsive to customer needs and produce tangible results faster. SoftO2 has been active in this movement since 2004 through training and coaching. These are key lessons we have learned. |
 |
CREATE AN ADOPTION STRATEGY WITH HAND-PICKED AGILE PRACTICES |
In order to migrate to an agile approach, management needs to make crucial strategic decisions at the very start.. Agile methods such as Scrum and Lean do not have pre-defined answers to questions such as:
» Do we use pure agile or a hybrid approach?
» How will the new roles be divided?
» How many iterations will each release contain?
» What will the optimal length of each iteration?
» How do we continue releases in progress?
|  |
» How will requirements be developed?
» Will test-driven development be beneficial?
» How and when will testing and automation be performed?
» What will we measure and report?
» Which tools will we put in place? |
SoftO2 therefore recommends that you kick off the agile adoption with a transition strategy and hand-pick the agile practices that fit your objectives and culture, while managing the many changes that a team is going to face. Workshop such as Agile Adoption and Migration Strategies facilitates this first step with real-world simulations and lessons learned from the 30+ transitions that we have guided. We also provide in-company consulting to help you establish this strategize.
|
| BRING AGILE SKILLS TO ALL TEAM MEMBERS |
Many organizations send a few managers to a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course. This training seemed attractive for individuals because one obtains a certification by sitting through a high-level 2-day class. As a result, many new agile teams have failed in their agile adoption because the acquired knowledge was too shallow, and the rest of the team was never trained properly. At SoftO2, more than half of our agile engagements so far have actually originated from these failed transitions.
SoftO2 therefore decided to create an agile training portfolio for both agile teams and specialists. We train the entire team so that everybody becomes skillful and we address the particular challenges that project managers, business analysts and testers face.
|
| COACH THE INITIAL ITERATIONS |
Agile migrations rarely start entirely smoothly. Changes in roles, mindset, processes and tools are fairly drastic and it is natural that some adjustments are necessary during the initial period. Guidance by an experienced agile coach can aid enormously in overcoming these challenges. SoftO2 offers agile coaching as part of its consulting services, both in a full-time onsite or part-time remote coaching format.
|
