How much compromise is too much – when is Agile no longer agile?
If you don’t pair program, have a distributed team, or your iteration is 5 weeks long, are you Agile? In this session we will debate both sides of this issue as we seek to answer the questions –“how much compromise is too much?” and “when is Agile no longer agile?” Do you give up on the concept of Agile Development altogether because you are not adopting the whole methodology or do you look for ways to use as much as possible even if your environment is not ideal?
The session will start with participants dividing into four groups:
- Those who believe Agile Development cannot be adopted in pieces – it is all or nothing,
- Those who believe that Agile Development can be adopted piecemeal – taking the pieces that make the most sense in the specific environment,
- Those who aren’t sure one way or the other, and
- An audience group.
An identical scenario involving an Agile Development adoption effort will be presented to each group for analysis and discussion. Each group will propose rationale to whether or not the agile adoption effort in the given scenario can succeed. Spokespersons from each group will present their viewpoints in a mock debate setting. The audience will participate by deciding which group made the best case for the particular scenario. Dependent upon number of participants, members of the audience may have the option of switching roles with debate group members before a new scenario is presented.
Possible Session Schedule:
- Introduction and Group Identification (15 minutes) - Introduce topic and select volunteers for each group.
- Scenario 1 (20 minutes) - Groups evaluate scenario and produces a statement supporting their group’s position. One member of each group will present the statement to the audience. First group to speak is decided by a coin toss. The audience group will then evaluate which group had the most effective presentation.
- Scenario 2 (20 minutes) - Depending on attendance, volunteers will be solicited to swap places between audience and debate groups. Same process as Scenario1 but the group that went second during the Scenario 1 debate goes first during this debate.
- Scenario 3 (20 minutes) - Depending on attendance, volunteers will be solicited to swap places between audience and debate groups. Same process as Scenario 1 and 2. We will determine debate order based on performance in the previous two scenarios.
- Retrospective (15 minutes) A discussion of what we heard and the implications will be facilitated, with the goal of generating a set of criteria for participants to use in determining “how much compromise is acceptable” during Agile adoption efforts.
Depending on time, up to three scenarios could be examined during the session. The session retrospective will summarize what was learned during the discussions and propose a set of guidelines to help participants evaluate their own environments and decide if Agile adoption is possible within their organization or if the adoption of Agile within the current environment would require too much compromise to the Agile principles be worth the effort.