What Martin doesn't address in his message is what management *can* do. All
he says is that they *can't* impose a process. I think my employers have the
right (and sometimes the obligation) to demand accountability and
improvement from me. My reaction may require me to step back and take a
broader view. The purpose we share is to do a good job of providing useful
software in a timely manner. The conversation we share is around how best
to do that. We can spend our time drawing lines in the sandbox or we can
talk with each other and learn to cooperate for our common good. A large
road and tunnel system than spans the whole sandbox is lots more fun than
defending my little square.

A respectful adoption of agile process can begin anywhere within an
organization. Starting from management is sometimes easier because it
assures financial and corporate backing. If the CEO says I want our
organization to be agile, how are we going to get to that flexible position
as quickly as possible; you all know ways to make that work. The Agile value
of "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools" would suggest
that your relationship with the CEO and/or manager is more important than
any process that either of you is attached to. The principle from the Agile
Manifesto which states "Business people and developers must work together
daily throughout the project" seems to require a close collaboration not
just with customers but also business people within your own organization.
If you had such collaboration in place, then the principle that states "At
regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then
tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly." makes sense. Without any
collaboration with the business people in your company this principle turns
into an exercise in self-stimulation.

If the boss says, "I want you to use this process". That is the beginning of
a conversation that could be useful and productive. If your reaction to his
statement is "I won't" or "You can't make me!", you have just taken that
conversation back to the preschool level of a power struggle. I think there
are more conversational options than that.

The only principle in the manifesto that could be misconstrued to mean that
management should have no opinions of how we should work would be "The best
architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams."
Notice that there is a difference between self-organizing and
self-governing. Also note that an effective team would likely have some
management support as part of their self-organizing team."

We think that we, as programmers or consultants, have the right to say "We
should all be working in an agile way." Why not a manager or a CEO? What
makes that entirely a programmer's perogative? Agile development is not a
process that can only be dictated from the programmer level. I think that
this points to an attitude problem with the structure inherent in a company,
that money and power are not equally distributed and that process/work
style/work culture like many other aspects of company life may not be in
your individual control. If you accept company structure, how best to adopt
agile process? Programmers like it if it is their idea, but long-term
success is dependent on management buy-in, not programmer buy-in. Agile
development is not a process that can only be dictated from the programmer
level.

So, if it is being "imposed from the outside"--note the assumption that
other people with authority in your company are outsiders--the question
still remains "How best to begin with agile development?" How do we
respectfully change our corporate cultures from any level, within our
workgroup or at the level of of IT management decision-making process? Who
is part of your team and why doesn't your team include your management--all
people with a vested interest in the project? It comes back to the question
what are we as a company going to do to provide value in the world of
commerce?

Regards,

Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres
Three Rivers Institute


_____



From: extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Deb
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 6:28 AM
To: extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [XP] "Agile Imposition is a Very Red Flag" - discuss



I thought some members of this list might be interested in this item,
which I posted today, if you've not already seen it on Fowler's own site:

http://www.infoq. <http://www.infoq.com/news/imposed-mandated-agile-fowler>
com/news/imposed-mandated-agile-fowler

Martin Fowler says: "Agile Imposition is a Very Red Flag"

Martin Fowler, one of the original creators of the Agile Manifesto in
2001, reflected last week on reports of Agile process being imposed on
teams from the outside. He states his reaction succinctly: "Imposing a
process on a team is completely opposed to the principles of agile
software, and has been since its inception."

This follows up on the "Good Agile, Bad Agile" item of last week.
http://www.infoq. <http://www.infoq.com/news/yegge-good-bad-agile>
com/news/yegge-good-bad-agile

deb

--
Deborah Hartmann
Agile Community Editor
www.InfoQ.com







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