This talk summarizes the results of 4 years of industry surveys concerning the adoption and effectiveness of agile techniques. Very often the reality is significantly different than the rhetoric presented in mailing lists, in articles, and even in books. Many myths or ideas around Agile are explored, and some are proven false and some confirmed to be true based on survey results.
Agile adoption often proves challenging. Participants at a recent OpenSpace event focused on the dynamics of adoption rather than the structure that results from adoption. The resulting patterns are part of an effort to compile Agile adoption patterns answering: "What specific practices should I adopt?", "How can I adopt incrementally?" and "Where can I expect pitfalls?"
What are the tricks to successfully transitioning from cubicles to a team room? What are the concerns? Ideas include: make the change an experiment, make sure everyone is heard.
No software project is perfect, nor is the organization in which the project takes place. When your software project goes wrong, do your team members complain, or do they take corrective action? The Complaint Free World project encourages people to take notice of how often they complain, and reduce the frequency of the complaints, aiming for a goal of twenty-one complaint-free days.
What does it take to create a high-performing team? According to Doug Shimp and Samall Hazziez, a "Well Formed Team" exhibits the following characteristics: follow Agile and Lean principles, use an adaptive system with a feedback loop, are focused on the business vision, are passionate and hyper-productive.
Following a recent article on Science Daily, and a flurry of activity on the Lean Agile Scrum mailing list, InfoQ summarizes what factors make for an optimal team room, and in some cases influence whether a team room is effective at all.
Organizations adopting Agile naturally ask these questions; "Where do I start?", "What specific practices should I adopt?", "How can I adopt incrementally?" and "Where can I expect pitfalls?" In this article, Amr Elssamadisy gives a glimpse into an ongoing effort to document Agile practice adoption patterns: Participants at XPday Montreal took a stab at "Simple Design" and "Pair Programming."
Paired programming is an agile practice that is the source of much debate. Martin Fowler has posted an article on common misconceptions with paired programming, suggesting that pair programming is not a requirement of XP, it does not halve productivity, and others.
Many trainers agree that co-location is essential to really see the benefits of Agile, but proof of this has been largely anecdotal. On the ScrumDevelopment list recently, an interesting conversation was launched when a member pointed out a study conducted at a Fortune 50 auto maker, comparing productivity gains in collaborative workspaces versus traditional cubicle culture projects.
