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1 Paul Gorans commented Permalink

Fantastic response Elizabeth! But I would like to be a bit more candid. <div>&nbsp;</div> First, I want to agree with Ken on one point. I wholeheartedly agree that the implementation of an agile framework or process alone, especially across the entire enterprise, isn’t the answer. <div>&nbsp;</div> But, our clients do need right-sized implementations of proven frameworks that integrate agile and other proven practices. I, and others in IBM Global Business Services have been working with external clients to integrate rapid, lean, agile and traditional practices to deliver large, enterprise solutions since 1999 (and as Elizabeth has reminded me before…even before that ; - ). We have also been conducting assessments of troubled client agile implementations since 2005. All of the assessments that I have been a part of were well intended basic Scrum or XP implementations, where little or no time was spent to understand the current state constraints to agile practice usage, gain executive sponsorship to address the gaps, and develop a plan suited for the scale and type of project/product/program. Most of the clients hired an agile coach that understood Agile basics. Some clients even attained a one day Scrum Master Certification (that my teenage daughters could have passed had they paid the fee), and then they started writing stories…yippee. Most of them bumped into avoidable blockers from outside of the agile team on the very first sprint. Those clients all would have benefited by starting off with the applicable pieces of a proven framework like Dean’s or IBM’s that address end to end delivery, and some help from people who had really used it before to deliver work. <div>&nbsp;</div> Ken forgot to mention the subtext of the manifesto he signed when he addressed the agile value statement, “Individual and Interactions over Processes and Tools.” That subtext is, “WHILE THERE IS VALUE IN THE ITEMS ON THE RIGHT, we value the items on the left more.” In my experience, without some documentation of the right things, at the right time, chaos is likely to ensue. The Scrum folks have done a lot of great work, but they showed up pretty late to the party with even the notion of needing a &amp;quot;Sprint 0&amp;quot; to do a little pre-work before a first Sprint. Dean, Scott Ambler, I and others have been talking about and writing about “with discipline” and “to scale&amp;quot; practices for years, which are also influenced by well proven lean practices. It is great that Ken is going to now create another framework (and maybe a one day “master” certification for the framework?), but there are already choices out there for our clients now, as well as experienced people who know how to tailor them to client wants and needs. <div>&nbsp;</div> Most of our clients are not at a point where they are just ready to &amp;quot;be agile&amp;quot; after basic Scrum training and some coaching. And, most of them are asking for agile “project” delivery from system integrators through procurement processes. They need help. So instead of reinventing the wheel every time, and re-discovering a majority of the same lessons through retrospectives every time, our clients would be wise to leverage proven frameworks, and some help from experts who understand how to implement the right aspects of it for them. If we in the Agile community want to take the next leap with Agile, we have to stop over simplifying what it takes to implement Agile with most of our clients for true end-to-end optimization (not water-scrum-fall). I contend that leveraging existing, proven, frameworks is a part of that leap…regardless of their origin.