Agile Like You Mean It

Gil Broza specializes in increasing organizational agility and team performance with minimal risk and thrashing. Dozens of companies seeking transformations, makeovers or improvements have relied on his pragmatic, modern and respectful support for customizing agile in their contexts. His book "The Agile Mind-Set" helps practitioners go beyond process and adopt a true agile approach to work. His book "The Human Side of Agile" is a practical book on leading agile teams to greatness. These days, several of the world's largest organizations are having him train hundreds of their managers in technology and business (up to VP level) on practical agile leadership. Get Gil's popular 20-session mini-program "Something Happened on the Way to Agile" free at OnTheWayToAgile.com.

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Agility is more than just sprints, customer involvement, and cross-functional teams; it’s a philosophy — a set of attitudes, beliefs and values that must be supported or it will erode gradually. To avoid reverting to old behaviors, keep reevaluating your processes with the mission of simplifying and sustaining what’s working.

This is the fifth article in an exclusive series excerpted from the new book The Human Side of Agile. Part One looked at the Agile team leader’s responsibilities; Part Two described the team leader’s relationships with various role players; Part Three showed how to help your team embrace the continuous improvement mindset; and Part Four presented an approach for carrying out improvement efforts as experiments.

The software industry is littered with Agile implementations whose success and performance did not last. In some cases, new senior management came in and undid Agile, whether intentionally or through a reorganization. In most other cases, however, Agility eroded gradually. Your ongoing leadership and influence are vital — and limited. Since every team is part of a bigger whole, management has to actively back Agility in order to stop and reverse erosion.

Someone must protect the chosen methodology. The single Agile team has a process steward, typically called ScrumMaster, Agile team leader, Agile …

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