So You Think You’re Agile...

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.

  Agile   Estimating  

According to various surveys, many IT projects worldwide use agile methods such as Scrum. What the surveys don’t tell you, however, is that many of those projects suffer from the typical ailments of traditionally run projects: compromised quality, technical debt and missed deadlines. Why is that? And if that’s your situation, what can you do about it?

What Agile Promises
Agile methods carry certain promises. If you follow the principles (as first described in the Agile Manifesto), the following will in fact happen:

• You’re more likely to create what your customers want and less of what they don’t want.
• The product will be in good working order (at least from the user’s perspective).
• It will be easier to make needed or desired changes, and to make better informed decisions.

The Reality: Any of These Agile Faux Pas Sound Familiar?
Most organizations only discovered agile recently. For them, deciding to follow the principles requires a pervasive organizational change, quite possibly the largest one they have experienced in recent memory. It’s often accompanied by some kicking and screaming, passive resistance and misunderstanding. The self-directed implementations I commonly observe exhibit the following phenomena:

• Planning and estimating large-scale work remains in the hands of a few managers and …

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