How Can I Start to be Agile?
There’s a lot of interest in getting started. In being Agile. In doing the cool stuff you’ve heard about from others. But how might you get started?
Well, no matter what department or team you’re currently a part of, there are things you can do. And none of this is hard. It just takes time and effort. What follows is one step-by-step way to start. This certainly isn’t the only way, but it’s an option. Take what follows with a grain of salt – this is a very generic approach.
Before you start anything, make sure you know why you’re about to embark on this journey. I’m going to assume, since you’re still reading this post that you know there’s something you want to improve. It might be worth having a look at what Agile has to offer. Here’s a link to one perspective of the value proposition of what Agile has to offer. And it’s also worth looking at the Values outlined in the Agile Manifesto , as well as the Twelve Principles behind the Agile Manifesto . While the Agile Manifesto was written by software developers, you can apply it to your domain by replacing “working software” with “business value”.
Finally, before I get to some steps you can try, I need to remind you that the goal isn’t to be agile.
And it’s even more important that we remember that we’re not trying to be agile for the sake of agile. We’re trying to make it a better place to work, for both us as employees, and with better products, services, and experiences for our customers.
The real answer to the question “How do I start to be Agile” is to live the values and principles outlined in the above links.
Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, if you’re looking for something actionable to get going, here’s a place to start:
Start with what you do now. Seriously. This isn’t about a massive change. The change part comes in when you identify reasons to change!
Understand why you & your team exist:
What service do you provide to others?
Who do you provide your services to?
Who provides services to you that you’re dependent on?
Make your work visible.
Here are a couple of links to examples:
The key is to build your board so it matches the flow of work. Don’t copy what someone else has done! The board needs to map directly to your workflow. And don’t worry if you get it wrong. I tell every team I coach & work with that if their board looks the same in a month from now, they’re doing it wrong. It’s supposed to evolve, so just get it started now.
One suggestion is to start by drawing out how your work flow, as you understand it today, from the original idea until it’s in the customer’s hands. A whiteboard, or on a larger sheet of paper which you can hang in your work area, is a pretty good place to start. And start with done, and work backwards.
And along the way (and this often gets overlooked), make sure you’re building the right thing! Make sure you’re solving a real problem, for a real customer, at the right time. There are lots of blog posts, articles, videos, and approaches that discuss this. It’s really important. There’s nothing worse than producing something on time, on scope, and on budget, that should never have been built in the first place.
In the following days, weeks, and months, review your work:
Does it make sense?
What steps or phases are missing?
What patterns are you seeing?
Is there something you can change that you think might help?
These four ideas are just places to start. They seem simple, and maybe they are. In most cases, my experience has been that they’re not as simple as they look.
Don’t rush through this! In my experience, getting to a stable place when considering the questions in step four is months. Maybe even quarters.
Let’s say you’ve done that. What might be next?
There’s a lot you can do next. Here are just a few ideas. But before you jump into this section, I’m really going to strongly encourage you to not to try to get to this too fast. Go back and look at point #4 in the last section. Really think about that, and explore it with your full team. Has anything change with your answers to the questions in #2 from the first section above? Have you learnt anything new that you should consider? Are you really ready to move on? If so…
Agree to pursue improvement through evolutionary change. That means that everyone on the team needs to agree that you’re going to find ways to improve what you’re doing, in a way that works for you. It won’t be the same as someone else, but it might be. Just don’t copy for the sake of copying!
Does everyone understand what’s required to move an item from one stage of your workflow to the next? Not just those on your team, but those who you depend on, and those who depend on you? Make the policies explicit & visible.
Now that your work is visible, limit your Work In Progress (WIP). Try to get things through your flow faster. It’s not about starting work, but about completing it.
How long is it taking from the time you start working on one item until it’s done?
How might you reduce that time?
Do you have the right people, with the right skills, on your team?
Where in your workflow are things getting stuck? What’s causing that?
Review your workflow:
Does it make sense?
What steps or phases are missing?
What patterns are you seeing?
Is there something you can change that you think might help?
That’s hard. Again, I know it sounds simple. But it’s really quite hard to do well. I know those steps, and questions, can be really, really tough if you’re really reflecting and putting the effort to improve and evolve.
Again, don’t rush. It’s more important to explore what’s working and what isn’t. Any Agile framework isn’t a methodology – it’s just a framework designed to expose opportunities for improvements. But actually doing the improvements is where the real value comes in, and where the real benefits are. There’s no magical time for these items. I’d suggest you think about timelines for this section in terms of quarters (as in multiple quarters!), possibly years. In fact, if you’re doing all of the above things, you should continue finding improvements…
There’s a little more though. But don’t start here. Maybe look at this a little later, perhaps.
How long is work waiting until you start working on it? What can you do to reduce this lead time?
Encourage acts of leadership at every level. Do you do this?
Is everyone empowered and encouraged to try something different from what you’re doing now, to help you improve?
Wait a second. Improve what? Everything. Put everything on the table, including those things that you hold to be absolute truths. This is where real change and real improvements can come through. If you let them.
Do you have an explicit feedback loop to get input on what’s working well, and what isn’t?
Does everyone on your team know what they are?
What are you doing about them?
And yes, there’s more beyond this, too. But this should give you an idea of the journey you may want to go on. Notice how the questions and steps all build on each other?
The key message throughout is one of continuous learning, and being open to the possibilities of changing and improving.