Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Formalize on an Agile Approach
Believe it or not, convincing the project team and stakeholders to adopt the Scrum methodology formally was a relatively easy task. They had already grasped some of the values we had employed, and they were impressed with the changes that occurred as a result. Whatever I was doing, they wanted to see it expanded. We started by simply declaring our intent to use Scrum to deliver what remained of the current project and also as a methodology for future projects.
At this point, I decided to study Agile project management in much greater detail. I found a good book about Agile and read it cover to cover: Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, by Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck. As I read, I adopted the practices that I felt would have the greatest positive impact on the project objective.
Once my management team was on board, I began looking for opportunities to share my experiences with other people. I found others in my organization who were also adopting Agile project management methodologies, and we helped each other to learn and use Agile tools more effectively. Every time we introduced a new Agile tool, we immediately started looking for more tools to use. At the time this article was written, these tools included the following practices:
- Close collaboration with business partners
- Work backlog lists, with business capabilities prioritized in terms of business value
- Sprints, ordered in terms of business value
- Sprint task lists
- Daily Scrum meetings
- A virtual war room
- Self-organization
- Automated unit testing