Implementing agile at scale starts with the right management attitudes and structures, but it doesn't stop there. The waterfall mindset is often deeply embedded, and successful agile transformation requires a new understanding of how your organization works, not just a new set of processes for a few teams.
In Forging Change, James Carpenter cuts through the noise that often surrounds large- scale agile transformations to explain how agile theories play out in the real world. Part 1 focuses on agile deployment challenges, including different ways to spread the agile mindset and management practices that are crucial to success. In Part 2, he has assembled a collection of conceptual models, practical techniques, and real-world examples showing how healthy agile processes work in large organizations. These techniques will help you establish a real change in mindset, not just terminology.
- Push higher quality standards by ratcheting your definition of Done.
- Forecast releases for business use without violating agile principles.
- Encourage automated unit testing and other aspects of improved craftsmanship.
- Select the right Scrum Master when you can't upend the organizational chart yet.
Forging Change provides a well of tested information, models, and examples that address these and other common challenges. The result is a dependable, practical resource you will turn to again and again as you work to achieve positive, lasting organizational change.
Industry Reviews
In Forging Change, James provides an overview of the changes necessary for an agile adoption, with a particular focus on the teams and on specific advice informed by his years of experience. Although an agile adoption is an organizational change process, the work really only happens at the team level--without functioning teams an organization is unlikely to benefit from any kind of agile change effort. Some of the material in this book may be difficult to digest for some managers. As with any change effort, the discomfort is an indication that real change is happening.
If you are looking to change and adapt your organization for the future, be thankful you have the opportunity to learn from those who have been through change and know what's possible. It won't eliminate the difficulty of the journey you're about to embark on, but it will make it a bit more scenic.
David Stackleather