Transitioning to an agile development process is unlike most transitions development organizations make. Many transitions begin when a strong, visionary leader plants a stake in the ground and says, “Let's take our organization there.” Other transitions start with a lone team thinking, “Who cares what management thinks, let's do this.” The problem in transitioning to agile is that neither of these approaches alone is likely to lead to the long-term, sustainable change you want.
Mike Cohn describes how you can iterate toward more agility by combining a senior-level “guiding coalition” with multiple “action teams.” Along the way, you will learn the acronym ADAPT to describe the five steps necessary for any successful agile transition: Awareness, Desire, Ability, Promote, and Transfer. Explore the true role of leaders and managers to guide self-organizing teams toward agility. Take back proven patterns for getting started—Start Small, Stealth Mode, Going All In, Public Displays of Agility, Impending Doom, and more. Leave knowing what you must—and must not—do to succeed with agile in your organization and team.