How Agile Projects Can Fail
By Bachan Anand / Filed under Agile, Collaboration, Inspect & Adapt, Self Organization / April 23rd, 2011
Many companies who decide to go the Agile route assume it’s their salvation for cutting time and costs on a project. That’s not always the case.
The fact that members of your leadership have agreed to switch to Agile doesn’t mean the team will be on board right away. People despise change, and often resent a third party coming in to completely turn around their systems and processes, even if it is allegedly for the best. It can be an uphill battle, and a time-consuming one.
Understand the common obstacles to ensure your team works to circumvent them:
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Management is not actively promoting the benefits of Agile.
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There is no Agile Champion helping the buy-in to Agile.
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Leadership expects the conversion to happen quicker than is realistic.
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The team members are not owning what they do.
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Team members do not have a sense of urgency to make the change.
Leadership’s Role
Certainly, the person who signs the check may have influence into whether a team turns to Agile solutions, but his role doesn’t end there. It is key to have management on board, fully understanding the implications and benefits of Agile, and to cheerlead the team regularly. People follow by example.
Identifying an Agile Champion
Finding someone who fully supports the move to Agile can help the team with the transition. An Agile Champion should be someone enthusiastic about Agile who can talk to people about how it will help the project and the team. This person may field concerns and complaints and help to identify whether they are simply a resistance to change or whether there are more serious implications that need to be dealt with before moving forward. The Champion should be internal to the team; not the third party coach or consultant.
Giving it Time
Agile coaches or consultants must stress up front a realistic timeline to get a team up and functioning in Agile. If the team is on board, it may happen quickly; if not, the time and space needed to convert will stretch out. Leadership must understand that this is not an overnight process, and must support the effort throughout.
Own Your Own
In Agile, each team member has a specific role, and is responsible for a specific set of results. It is key that this team run like a well-oiled machine. Team members must own what they are responsible for.
Getting Urgent
Usually a company decides to implement Agile because of something that’s broken. Leadership wants to stop the problem and set up better processes, and they see Agile as the solution. But if all the team doesn’t feel a sense of urgency to make the transition and stop this problem from continuing, the shift to Agile will be slower and more arduous than it has to be.
Agile works, but not for every team. Without openness to change, a conversion to Agile will be futile.
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