A Disciplined Approach to Agile Adoption

Posted by Ben Hughes on May 10, 2007 12:06 PM

Community

Agile

Topics

Methodologies ,

Agile in the Enterprise ,

Change

Tags

Adoption ,

Business Models

Ahmed Sidky and James D. Arthur present the first part of their Agile Adoption Framework. providing a structured, repeatable framework for adopting Agile processes in a development organization.

The framework aims uses a four staged approach for assessing the organization's ability to adopt agile practices, cascading down through project suitability and aims to reconcile the findings in a set of agile processes to adopt:



The authors introduce the concept of the Sidky Agile Measurement Index (SAMI), which proposes the agile potential (i.e., the degree to which that entity can adopt agile practices). This consists of four components:

1. Agile Levels - a set of agile practices that are related and, when adopted collectively, would make significant improvements in the software development process, thereby leading to the realization of a core value of agility.
   
   
2. Agile Principles -  guidelines that need to be employed to ensure that the development process is agile.
   
   
3. Agile Practices and Concepts - concrete activities and practical techniques used to develop and manage software projects in a manner consistent with the agile principles.
   
   
4. Indicators - questions the assessor uses to assess certain characteristics of an organization or project, such as its people, culture, and environment, in order to determine assess the readiness of the organization or project to adopt an agile practice.

The authors go on to comment on the practical uses of of the SAMI beyond the framework, and illustrate thorough an example how the SAMI can be applied.

While this is only the first installment in a two part article, the authors provide a thought provoking method for measuring the distance an organization will have to travel, in order for it to reach its full agile potential.

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