You probably heard good things about Agile. Probably read about it too. But you have no clue how to start, what methodology to use, and you simply don’t have the time to read up on it all. Well, you’re not supposed to either. Follow these small steps, and you’re ready to start a new life in an agile fashion. Oh, and did I mention it will help you deliver projects on time, with desired functionality, and with happy customers? Try it! You’ll see!

1) The principles: First things first. Get familiar with the Agile Manifesto. And do spend a little time to understand it and think about what it really says. (www.agilemanifesto.org)

2) Setting up Scrum: I take it you have some kind of requirements document or list telling you the scope of the project. By breaking this document or list into achievable items is your backlog. Make also sure you have identified who a) the customer is, b) the scrummaster is and c) who the developers are.

3) Start using Scrum

a) Break down your backlog into sprints / iteration with work worth of 2 weeks - a month time

b) Allow developers to pick one task at a time instead of delegating it to them!

c) let the developers re-estimate their tasks and make sure the updated estimate is publicly known

4) Start Sprinting!

a) Communicate: Hold daily scrum meetings. This is a Stand Up meeting for all developers and scrum master. Each member answers three questions:

1) What has been done since last meeting,

2) What will you do til next meeting,

3) What impediments have hindered you to do your job?

b) Develop: Each developer use best practices and communicates with other developers to solve the task to the best of their abilities. Make sure the customer is no more than a phone call away to answer questions.

c) Adapt: Make sure estimates are up to date and known for customers and stakeholders. If impediments are registered, remove them as quickly as possible. If there are any bad smells, find the source and fix it ASAP. Constantly work to maintain the big picture and use management techniques to fix any issues.

5) Produce business value!

Every sprint should be completed with something of business value. It’s important that the customer gets to see results as quickly as possible (at the end of the sprint). Every developer should keep business value in mind and complete their tasks by the end of each sprint. An iteration should always end with working software!
6) Evaluate, improve and do it again!

Hold a review session at the end of a sprint. What and how can things be better? No condemning, but handle it as a team, not individuals. Commit making the next sprint a better one!

Well, it’s that easy! If nothing else, then start with the daily stand-up meeting! It’s a great way to practice efficient communication.

The introduction to agile development should be done after the agile principles: one piece at a time, always improving, aiming for the best result possible.


Start with Scrum.

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Also, be sure to check out the free, and excellent tool, ScrumWorks (http://danube.com/scrumworks/features.htm?gclid=CJPIlIPh4YcCFTUHQgod9FhdKQ) . It’s been very succesfully used with our projects and is an important tool for project transparency, tasking and progress tracking.