Do you have the guts to be Agile?
Every day we Houstonians see organizations trying to embrace agile. They do it because agile has potential to make their organizations more adaptive and efficient in the ever-changing business environment.
Two Houstonians with guts!
“If you make a formal transition to agile and then think your work is done, you are missing the point.”
Yet the organizations that can reach their potential are few and far between. This is because the way to benefit from agile is to live it, to embrace the values and principles in our everyday work. If you make a formal transition to agile and then think your work is done, you are missing the point.
“Organizations that live according to the agile principles and reap the rewards accordingly, are very few.”
We, celebrating the tenth anniversary of Agile Manifesto, are not alone in this observation. At ALE2011 unConference, Rachel Davies mentioned the same thing in her keynote. Even though in the last ten years agile development methods have become quite well known and widely used, organizations that live according to the agile principles and reap the rewards accordingly, are very few. This is due to a more fundamental problem: developers and managers alike struggle to see possibilities of transforming their daily work for the better with the help of agile methods. The existing structures can make change very uncomfortable for individuals: maybe you are accustomed with your personal sales bonuses or maybe your company does not exactly celebrate failure.
“In a true agile organization, every employee acts as a change agent.”
That’s why it is important to stay vigilant and concentrate on the big picture. Doing this demands guts. In a true agile organization, every employee acts as a change agent. It is not enough to do agile software development, you have to live the agile values and principles.
“The best way to do this is to have courage but be humble at the same time.”
So what can we do to make things change for the better? The only people who can make a difference is you and I. If we embrace agile values and principles in our everyday work, we cannot help but spread the agile mindset. Our good example will spread among the people we work with every day. The best way to do this is to have courage but be humble at the same time. We must continuously question the way things are done and look for improvements. At the same time we must respect the views of our peers, for that is the way towards mutual communication.
So, here is our challenge: I’m sure you got the guts, please show it by driving change with humility and living by the agile values and principles!
Humbly yours,
Antti Kirjavainen
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