Adopting Agile Practices
In this chapter, I will give you direction on how to go about successfully choosing which practices to consider adopting. I'll also ask you to benchmark your work—even if you just do it subjectively—so you can be "agile" about your adoption. This is, however, only advice on how to come up with your own priorities and your own list of practices to adopt. If you are looking for a prescription—do practice A, then B, but not C—you won't find it here. (And if you do find it elsewhere, my advice to you is not to trust it.)
The Practices
The bulk of this book contains patterns of Agile practice adoption—that is, Agile practices written up in pattern format with a focus on adoption. In this chapter, your goal is to choose the practices that fit your organization's context. That comes down to relying on the work you've done in the previous chapter in prioritizing your business values and smells and using it to choose which practices to adopt to improve your business values and reduce your smells.