Identifying the Reader
The book is aimed at change agents: the people who want to create and establish an agile process despite the difficulties of doing so on a large team. Change agents on small projects in a non-agile environment will also benefit from the practices presented in some of the chapters—Chapter 6, “Agility and the Company,” in particular. I assume that the change agent already has some familiarity with agile processes in general or with a particular process (Extreme Programming, for example). Moreover, this book will definitely be of interest for people who
- have tried and failed to use agile methodologies on large projects
- have succeeded in using agile methodologies on large projects
- have not tried agile methodologies on large projects but would like to do so
- are firm believers of the linear (waterfall) model and think agile processes do not work (especially on large projects)
- are firm believers of agile processes but think they would never work on large projects
So, as a change agent, you are probably working on a large team as a project manager, a process coach, a consultant, or a developer. You would like to use an agile process for the large project you are working on, but are unsure how.