MinneBar Notes - You Can Do That? Selling Agile To The Enterprise

By Ben Edwards and Ross Niemi - 1100-1150

Slides are online.

  • Agile can be a hard sell, and it’s our fault because we’ve always wanted to get all the specs upfront from clients.
  • Benefits are Clear
  • Agile methods reduce project costs
  • Agile methods get projects to market faster
  • Agile methods create higher quality software
  • Communication, Responsiveness, Transparency, Growth
    • Keeps people on the same page and gets questions answered, works out solutions collaboratively.
    • Customer isn’t seperate from the process, their needs are addressed and regularly evaluated and prioritized
  • "Every line of code you have is a liability"
    • Simplicity in design is easier for people to understand, easier to test.
  • Ability to react to unforseen circumstances - can’t reach all requirements within the original plan; maybe can realize some ‘nice-to-haves’ if things come together more easily. But features stay in order of priority, and everyone stays focused.
  • You know quickly if you’re going to fail some aspect of the project using Agile - seeing things get out of hand or being unable to reach certain goals.
  • "Agile’s not something you do, it’s something you are"
  • How do you get your team comfortable with Agile?
    • Bring in an advisor
    • Have high-level people on the team that are familiar with Agile
  • Agile helps you identify risks and respond to them
  • Agile stories are bite-sized and easy to manage, easier than large, abstract task lists.
    • 4 to 8 hour estimates typically; if they’re larger they can probably be broken down further in to more manageable tasks.
  • By keeping everyone involved in all aspects, there are lots of opportunities for knowledge transfer and sharing ideas.
  • 2 Responses to “MinneBar Notes - You Can Do That? Selling Agile To The Enterprise”

    1. Ben Edwards Says:

      Hey, what’d you think. We are always looking for feedback.

    2. refactr Blog Archive » Selling agile to the enterprise. Says:

      […] that it wasn’t the same old intro to agile talk I have prepared time and again. Here are a few notes from Christopher Warren on the session. I’m not the only one who was involved, though. Here’s a quick post of […]

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