Agile. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Do better work, and do it faster. Why wouldn’t everyone do that?
I don’t have any agile/scrum certifications. In fact, my only certification was “Java Programmer”, and I got that before I figured out what a total scam all that certification biz actually is. But I was unit testing with JUnit in about 1998. Wrote way too many Ant builds. Did some pair programming. Twisted my brain writing Maven builds. Started using a continuous build server in 2003.
I’m just sayin… I’ve been exposed to a lot of agile practices, and participated in most, as they have been developed and evolved, over the years. And the one thing of which I am absolutely certain is that there is no silver bullet. No one practice that rules them all. No training, or process or methodology that you can universally apply to any and every team. I suspect the large volume of “failed” agile projects come from a notion that what worked at one company, or on one project, will automatically work everywhere else. That’s just lazy thinking.
I guess there is one more thing I can practically guarantee. There is always room for improvement. That is one of the core values of agile. Continuous Improvement. No matter where you start, you can always find one way to improve your process, your team, your environment. And after you fix that one thing, then you find the next, and the next. Not all attempts to improve will succeed. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from trying.
Need some help figuring out that first step? Or getting past a failed step? Give me a call. Always happy to help a development team take a step on the road of Continuous Improvement.