Agile frameworks themselves are actually really simple to follow even to the point of learning say Scrum in 1-2 minutes – see here

So why then does agile fail in some organizations and not in others if its so simple?

You guessed it….People!

Subjectively when you read or view information on an Agile framework, you think “ah, that sounds easy and transparent, we should do that”

BUT

When trying to roll out an Agile framework in an organisation you may find some of the following arising:

• Requirements are lacking and not formulated properly with clear acceptance criteria – an attitude of ‘we are agile we dont need requirements’ may prevail
• The Product owner is never available
• Members on the team are clashing which impedes delivery
• Business doesn’t adhere to the Agile process and impede sprints despite push back from the Scrum master
• Retrospectives are skipped and seen as  a waste of time
• Multiple conflicting roles like PO and SM are performed by the same person
• The team are failing every sprint
• The team are not failing but get blamed anyway

and so the list is endless….

So based on the above having a coach onsite is obviously very useful in the initial roll out of an Agile framework, at least a couple of months to help iron out all or most of the above pain points.

Finally how mentally prepared then is your organisation for Agile and how do you get there?

Two words – Personal Development

Don’t run for the hills yet, this is really good stuff and we have been doing it with some of our clients and it WORKS!!

Its really simple, you can do this yourselves or contract in a professional company to help. Basically you do some personal assessments, some team work and the outcome is really just this, you start to understand your own personality better and more importantly you start understanding your colleagues way more, which obviously leads to cohesion, collaboration and a much happier workplace.

How?

Taking some of examples above let me explain once some personal development had been done:

• Requirements are lacking – Johns self development test showed that he didnt like detail – he maybe wrong for the job!
• Members on the team are clashing  – now that each member has visibility of each others personality type they are getting on much better and the collaboration is astounding!
• Retrospectives are skipped  – most of the team members based on their self development and personality profiles were introverts and felt unsafe with their current scrum master
• Software not being delivered on time – The Scrum masters self development indicated that she didn’t like confrontation and so never protected the team from getting interrupted hence the delivery failure.

Self development tools are invaluable in the Agile space especially as Agile calls  for co-operation and collaboration – the more collaboration the more chance of happy people and great software deliverables!

Click this link for a free enneagram test and get a feel for your personality type and how it ties in with others in your organisaton.

I hope this will start raising some questions for you and help you in getting your organisation mentally prepared for Agile.