program selection system

Program Guide Summary:

As a trainer and consultant, I regularly encounter teams and individuals with significant misconceptions about what being Agile means. Some who have embraced the principles behind the Agile Manifesto, but are criticized as not being Agile because they don’t follow publicized Agile practices; some known as exemplars of Agile, but have implemented Agile concepts in a non-agile fashion; some who exemplify Agile principles, but reject being Agile because they don’t comply with published Agile processes.

This session will poses the question “What does it mean to be Agile?”

Full Summary:

I am an avid supporter of the Agile Manifesto and the principles behind it. As a trainer and consultant, I am almost continually faced with teams and individuals who have (in my opinion) significant misconceptions about what being Agile means. I encounter teams and organizations who have (in my assessment) embraced the principles behind the Agile Manifesto, yet are criticized as not being Agile because they don’t follow commonly referenced Agile practices and/or processes (i.e. XP, SCRUM, etc.). I also encounter teams and organizations that are externally referenced as being exemplars of Agile, but upon deeper inspection appear (to me) to have implemented Agile practices and/or processes in a non-Agile fashion. Further, I encounter teams and organizations who (to my eye) have embraced the principles behind the Agile Manifesto, but reject the notion of being Agile because they don’t believe that they comply sufficiently with commonly referenced Agile practices and/or processes.

This session will pose the following questions:

• What qualifies a team or organization to be recognized as being Agilewithin the Agile community?
  • Is it sufficient to embrace the principles behind the AgileManifesto to be recognized as an Agile team or organization?
  • Is it necessary to implement practices and/or processes commonlyassociated with Agile to be recognized as an Agile team or organization?
  • Is it some combination of the two?
  • Is it something else?

Goals of this session:

• Pose the question “What does it mean to be “Agile”?
• Kick off this new and innovative stage with a question intended to spark challenging discourse leading (hopefully) to positive enhancements in the Agile message.
• Model the approach this stage will use to manage professionaldiscourse/debate between session attendees.