Agile 101 - A personal approach to joining the Agile movement.

The actual question was “I am an Agile Novice - Where do I start?”

This was a common reaction from some people after my last article “Can anyone work in an Agile team?” so I thought I could give my opinion on it as it fits nicely into what we are currently chatting about. This question is not only relevant to graduates from college but also professionals involved in Agile or simply curious about this buzz word that is fashionably thrown around these days. When I was processing this commentary while running, I thought what could be my elevator response to this?

Short answer- start with the manifesto. Depending on how far you want to go with the journey, make sure you are connecting with the values that those smart men and women came up with, in 2001 when they put together the 1-page manifesto. Assuming these principles resonate with you, the next step is deep-diving into learning the different practices. This will now depend on your context. If your curiosity is for academic purposes, then you have more latitude. If you are constrained to a corporate environment, I would encourage you to then align with your organization’s strategy and framework – SAFe, SCRUM, DAD, etc.

Long answer, I think it is very important to understand, upfront, that Agile is a culture and way of doing things. It is not a process or methodology. We do also know that in general, culture is a way of doing things and when learning a culture, we ought to know how to “be” in that culture. Then a new question could be introduced here: is doing Agile the same as being Agile?

Before I comment on that further, let me deal with the main question first, for a professional with lots of experience but never had an opportunity to work in a real Agile environment OR works in an organisation that is doing Agile but perhaps not yet Agile. As I said right at the beginning, be at peace with the manifesto first. If you do not agree with the manifesto then you are likely going to do Agile and struggle to be Agile.

The manifesto was put together by software developers. Although it is just a page, it is a powerful one:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan 

These look very basic, easy to understand but when you take these values into an organisation claiming to be Agile and do a test of maturity on each value, you come out with interesting stories. I also like to use the same values to design Agile maturity assessments because it all comes down to these values and I like calling them the “fruit nectar” of Agile.

As a beginner, once you are at home with this way of life as values, then you can move on to the detailed learning. In a corporate environment, align with what your organisation is using. Most organisations are using SAFe, SCRUM, Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD),etc. There is a lot of free material on all of them on the net. My favorite is DAD, on a SAFe foundation - which is a subject for another time. If there is interest in this topic, I will comment on it in the future.

I have had an opportunity to train people in all of them and arranged courses for all of them and I am always interested in the pre-course expectations versus post-course feedback. Depending on people’s backgrounds, some may find the information overwhelming, especially if they jump into the course with no prior experience in project management or Agile in general.

To mitigate this learning curve or “growing pains”, I would suggest some preparation before attending any of these courses. Often when I do the fundamentals course with people, I use a top-down approach and that seems to make the information palatable. A top-down approach also gives them a total picture and once they get the total picture, we zoom into smaller topics as chapters. That way newcomers do not drown in the content and they do not lose focus. All in all, you could use the same approach using the frameworks freely available on the internet before you go for the full course. This will hopefully give you a landing page for the course.

What I have also seen that is working well is to immediately practice what you have learned. If you have an opportunity to practice any of the topics you have learned after the course, you must immediately do so. Many times we go on these courses and workshops to ignite the fire in our bellies only to get back to the office and the fire slowly fizzles out, leaving you with a useless piece of paper and you don’t remember half of the things they taught you. This is why in my previous articles I have challenged senior management to create the environment for people to practice. Change starts with management and like they say, “a fish rots from the head”! There is no point in investing in these courses if your employees are not going to be able to practice these skills. When it comes to transformation, you go first as management! Management must jump first, show them the leap of faith and people will follow. Once they follow, you give them the emotional, financial, and material support. Supervise them, mentor them, coach as well as motivate them. This is how the organisation will transform.

What happens if you are learning Agile but your organisation is not serious about Agile? Depending on your role, YOU could be what they have been waiting for to transform. If you are in a position of influence, like a leadership role, are there any things you have the freedom to implement in your team, with or without permission? I find most Agile practices common sense and simply the right things to do, if they are, why not simply try them out? If you need permission, negotiate and solicit support from your leadership.

If you are serious about the journey, I believe as you learn there are many things you can do. You may not be able to do all but the glass will certainly not be half empty but rather half full. As you learn you will also find that Agility goes hand in hand with "contained" self-managing and cross-functional teams, but I always remind people that it is controlled freedom unless you are working in a Teal organisation. I was explaining to a Scrum Master the other day that the freedom we have in Agile, is like giving your kid a ball and locking him or her in the backyard. The kid will have the freedom to play ball BUT the extent of play is limited to the shape and size of the garden. There is freedom but also controls in Agile.

This was the learning approach for a novice from a corporate environment. For those onboarding from an academic or consulting background, the method of learning is similar but the framework choice will depend on your long-term goals. In this context, I think you have more choices.

As part of this journey, please consider mentorship and/or coaching, it is good. Agile is about people, their interactions, and the creation of value for the customer. We live in the information age and its now easy to get information on any topic from a wide variety of platforms. Mentorship and coaching will help you with how to consume this information. Like medication, coaching helps with the approach, “dosage”, timing, and strategy. When you have a coach or mentor that you like, create a safe space to connect and share your vulnerabilities so he/she helps you with ways to overcome them.

On the same subject of mentorship and coaching, I do not believe in one mentor and one coach for everything. No one knows everything, we may all have a broad “T” in our “T” skills and our skills may be similar but the depth is different and on different subjects. I often like coordinating the cross-pollination of skills in teams that I coach. Different teams have different strengths in different competencies so if a team is very good at something, why not allow them to coach or showcase that skill to another team? I do this for a couple of reasons:

a)      I do not know everything, I am just an ordinary guy

b)     This motivates the team I ask to showcase a particular skill

c)      I cannot be everywhere, so this enhances my bandwidth

d)     This is a way of creating future coaches, mentors, and leaders

e)     People like to learn from colleagues

I am always fascinated by people transitioning to Agility. I believe it is not only the right thing to do but it is simply common sense. When you study the Agile manifesto carefully, I could argue that those values are not just relevant to project management, IT, software development, or just “things” you do at work - this is the new norm. Imagine creating a generation of people with this kind of mindset?

I could also add that as part of your Agile learning, please avoid evangelizing Agile. Agile is not a religion and the manifesto is NOT a bible. In Agile there are NO scriptures or instructions that MUST be followed, everything is a recommendation and it all comes down to what you want to achieve in your organisation. Organisations DO NOT want Agile, they want:

a)      Flexibility

b)     To be customer-centric in everything they do

c)      To adapt to changing markets

d)     Employees that are happy, motivated, and productive. Employees who work well with each other not just doing things because the processes or tool says so

e)     To produce products that are relevant to their clients and that their clients are willing to invest in them

f)       Close relationships and fruitful partnerships with their clients not just satisfying contracts

Always remember, Agile is not THE GOAL, it is the MEANS to the goal and organisations want to adopt Agile as a culture because they have a desire to achieve their goals. Agile is therefore a TOOL, not a PROJECT or adventure.

In conclusion, Agile is a way of life, it’s a culture, mindset, and a way of doing things. Understand the manifesto and if you are at peace with the values, select an appropriate framework to learn the practices but always ensure that it all comes down to the values enunciated in the manifesto. Don’t just do Agile, your DNA must BE AGILE!