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Agile in a Dead-line Driven Culture

At our most recent Think IT ZOOM Event discussed Agile and its timeline when delivering software delivery.  I want to thank Adam Kanouse and Andrew Ikamas for sharing their expertise on Agile in a Dead-line Driven Culture. And thanks to everyone for joining via ZOOM!

We started the meeting off by explaining the true meaning of Agile. Adam began by giving us a few points to think about when discussing Agile. Agile is a time-boxed iterative approach to software delivery.  When thinking about the “BIG” picture, no that you will fail and understand this so it’s not too costly. You, then, need to review and adjust your plans accordingly by doing “thin vertical slices” of work that includes both front – end and back – end work. Adam stressed that by doing this you can deliver minimally viable/valuable products early on and adjust as needed based on feedback from customers, users, and stakeholders.

Next up we talked about what to avoid and what to encourage while working in an Agile environment. First one needs to agree on the success criteria of the end-state not unveiling the detailed scope too early. You must be flexible and negotiable with your scope and the date but never the quality. In the early stages be sure to include the customer and facing teams in the process, communication is key. Make sure you pick deadlines that are realistic, reasonable and that hold value. To attain this you must set limitations as a team, never having more than 2-3 projects at one time. When finished you will need to assess and learn from your failures in a timely manner while making sure that your leadership team is on board with what you are trying to accomplish.  Try and stay away from overselling and promising too much too soon. Agile is a never-ending work in progress that we are always trying to improve.

Thanks again to Adam and Ikam for facilitating. You can find the meeting slides here.