Agile for beginners

Carlos -

Agile is NOT a methodology - it is a set of values & principles which can be used to develop a delivery methodology, but could also be used when managing non-project or even personal work.

A good starting point would be with the Manifesto itself (agilemanifesto.org) and then read PMI's Agile Practice Guide. You could also read a few of the HBR articles which have been written in the past couple of years on organizational agility.

But merely reading about it is of little value so find a way to apply agile thinking & practices to the work you are currently doing.

Kiron

Kiron,

You make a good point here. But, how would you get buy-in from leadership on the idea? There's been organization's that want agility to successfully manage "tactical" projects and fail due to attempting to modify existing processes to accommodate small projects. Would you build a business case here and present it to gain support?

Carlos, Kiron nailed it. The Agile Manifesto fits on a single sheet of paper (maybe double sided). Start there. It's amazing how many people want to talk about Agility and have never even read the manifesto. The values and principles basically define "Agile" in the modern business sense, and you need to understand these before you focus on the various ways people practice agility.

Look around the web a little after that. I like to talk about the history of Agile because people should understand that we've been solving the same problems for decades. Try one of the Lean / Agile timelines such as:
https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/practices-timeline
http://www.agilereleaseplanning.com/agile-timeline/

Here are a couple other good links:
Agile 101 from Agile Alliance: https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101
Lean and Agile Adoption with the Laloux Culture Model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Jc5aAJu9g&t=496s


If you feel fairly comfortable with Agile culture, then you can start to learn about the various practices and frameworks that Agile organizations use, such as Scrum, Kanban, or XP. I should point out that the term "waterfall" refers to predictive project management and is not considered an Agile framework. Indeed, many Agile organizations want nothing to do with "waterfall" (even if they have predictive plans), and many Agile organizations have no interest in those of us sporting our PMP credentials. That last point probably speaks to the years of misunderstanding that project managers have had about Agility, but that can change if more people like you are willing to learn.

Carlos, Kiron nailed it. The Agile Manifesto fits on a single sheet of paper (maybe double sided). Start there. It's amazing how many people want to talk about Agility and have never even read the manifesto. The values and principles basically define "Agile" in the modern business sense, and you need to understand these before you focus on the various ways people practice agility.

Look around the web a little after that. I like to talk about the history of Agile because people should understand that we've been solving the same problems for decades. Try one of the Lean / Agile timelines such as:
https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/practices-timeline
http://www.agilereleaseplanning.com/agile-timeline/

Here are a couple other good links:
Agile 101 from Agile Alliance: https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101
Lean and Agile Adoption with the Laloux Culture Model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Jc5aAJu9g&t=496s


If you feel fairly comfortable with Agile culture, then you can start to learn about the various practices and frameworks that Agile organizations use, such as Scrum, Kanban, or XP. I should point out that the term "waterfall" refers to predictive project management and is not considered an Agile framework. Indeed, many Agile organizations want nothing to do with "waterfall" (even if they have predictive plans), and many Agile organizations have no interest in those of us sporting our PMP credentials. That last point probably speaks to the years of misunderstanding that project managers have had about Agility, but that can change if more people like you are willing to learn.