My exposure to the agile community has not been super broad, but from what I have seen people tend to talk about agile in two forms. Or at least I perceive two distinct discussions. There is the "process" side of agile. This includes things like planning, communication, team norms, managing deliverables, prioritization, etc. Then there's what I call the technical practices side of agile. This includes practices like continuous integration, test first development, automation, pairing, etc. - mostly those practices borne out of extreme programming (XP).
I'm a whole-hearted believer in these technical practices. I believe it's these practices that form the foundation for agility. You can do XP without the agile processes, but you can't be agile without XP. Even doing XP in a pure waterfall world would yield huge productivity gains. For that reason I mostly equate one's agility with one's strength in technical practices. That's not to say there aren't significant gains to be had with process change. You just can't get functionality in the hands of customers faster than you can build, test, and release it. And the speed of your build, test, and release cycle is equivalent to how much of it you've automated.
A few years ago Andy Singleton posted Tech Leads Will Rule the World. I've had it bookmarked ever since. I liked what it had to say then. I firmly believe it now. Businesses are desperately fighting for agility as competition continues to increase and as software disrupts our world. To achieve the kind of agility that is so critical now and for future business viability, technical practices could not be more important.
When it comes to adopting technical practices there is no one more important than tech leads. These are the key influencers with the ability to set team norms, and most importantly, the ability to lead by example. The only way to successful adoption is strong technical leadership. The quickest way to peril is poor technical leadership.
But how do we all get there? Especially with all this talk of the technical talent shortage. Andrew Clay Shafer has taken a strong position on this topic. He's well worth listening to. Yes, we need to attract great talent. First and foremost we need to look internally and treasure the strong technical leadership that we have today. Your tech leads have a profound impact on the culture of the teams with which they work.
Do you know where your true tech leads are today? If you're not sure look no further than your highest performing teams (they'll have the best technical practices). And your "tech leads", well, you know how to identify them now too.
I'm a whole-hearted believer in these technical practices. I believe it's these practices that form the foundation for agility. You can do XP without the agile processes, but you can't be agile without XP. Even doing XP in a pure waterfall world would yield huge productivity gains. For that reason I mostly equate one's agility with one's strength in technical practices. That's not to say there aren't significant gains to be had with process change. You just can't get functionality in the hands of customers faster than you can build, test, and release it. And the speed of your build, test, and release cycle is equivalent to how much of it you've automated.
A few years ago Andy Singleton posted Tech Leads Will Rule the World. I've had it bookmarked ever since. I liked what it had to say then. I firmly believe it now. Businesses are desperately fighting for agility as competition continues to increase and as software disrupts our world. To achieve the kind of agility that is so critical now and for future business viability, technical practices could not be more important.
When it comes to adopting technical practices there is no one more important than tech leads. These are the key influencers with the ability to set team norms, and most importantly, the ability to lead by example. The only way to successful adoption is strong technical leadership. The quickest way to peril is poor technical leadership.
But how do we all get there? Especially with all this talk of the technical talent shortage. Andrew Clay Shafer has taken a strong position on this topic. He's well worth listening to. Yes, we need to attract great talent. First and foremost we need to look internally and treasure the strong technical leadership that we have today. Your tech leads have a profound impact on the culture of the teams with which they work.
Do you know where your true tech leads are today? If you're not sure look no further than your highest performing teams (they'll have the best technical practices). And your "tech leads", well, you know how to identify them now too.
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