Agile Transitions

I have been lucky enough to have helped in several Agile Transformations/Transitions as well as acting in the role of Product Owner and Scrum Master.

​​

Transitions are Hard:

Moving from more traditional waterfall to agile is a lot harder than you might think and there are lots of pitfalls. Its worth having a partner who has been through it a few times and who can help get you there more quickly.

​

In my opinion, agile out of the box, also has some weaknesses (many organisations end up with some type of hybrid solution that addresses some of the things agile may lack.) 

Below are just a few areas to think about.

​

​

Planning Gaps:

• Agile is pretty good at planning the next  2-4 weeks and to some extent, the next 2-3 months, but what happens when your CEO asks if you have enough capacity to achieve a larger milestone taking several years? 

  • Agile alone can't tell you --  I have built out planning mechanisms to help face these type of questions 

• It can also be hard to size something at the Epic or Feature levels to get ROMs. 

  • Ask me about the "Would you be surprised if.."(WYBSI) method which really helps teams with this issue​

​

User Stories that get the Team Moving:

• The team needs to decide how stories look. I have found that the traditional methods such as "As a, I Want, So That" dont always tell the developers enough information to get started (especially when you are building on top of an existing system) 

  • I can help you tune your stories so they maximise readability and reduce the chances of confusion

​

Agile/Waterfall Decision-gate?

• Does it make sense to do every project in agile?  I would argue probably not. (e.g. Would you build an oil rig using agile -- I doubt it) 

• If you want, I can help you build in a decision-gate in your project initiation which helps you decide which methodology serves you best.

​

Let me help your team move swiftly through the uncertainty and confusion allowing them to become productive more quickly.