Agile development isn’t a thing you do, it’s an attitude, it’s a set of personal values about responding to the real world, being open to the information that is there and being willing to do something about it.
You begin by stating that agile is basically three things: a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, a project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, and a leadership philosophy that encourages team work and accountability.
You go on to say that success in today’s economy requires us to respond quickly to changing market conditions. Agile processes allow our teams to meet the changing demands of their customers while creating environments where top developers want to work.
Instead of “managing” the process in the traditional sense, management can help a lot more by:
- realizing that it is the teams that will discover and make the improvements, not management,
- giving teams the responsibility to manage and improve their own process as well as the freedom and authority to do so,
- establishing an environment that actively encourages teams to be totally honest about their problems and impediments,
- listening to what the teams say they need and respond to those needs,
- observing teams in action instead of just collecting numbers,
- providing useful feedback to teams instead of instructions or pressure.
