“Transitioning Typical Processes”

• There are many processes in a typical project that don’t transition well to agile because they require heavyweight documentation or are an inherent part of the phased and gated process & require signoffs at the end of each stage.

“Metrics can be controversial”

• Measurements such as cycle time that involve the whole team are more likely to drive you toward success than measures confined to isolated roles or groups.
• Lean development looks for ways to delight customers, which ought to be the goal for all software development.
• Metrics that measure milestones along a journey to achieve team goals are useful.

• Figure each metrics Return on Investment and decide whether to track or maintain it. Does the effort spent collecting it justify the value it delivers? Can it be easily communicated and understood? Do what works for your situation. Experiment with keeping a particular metric for a few sprints and evaluate whether it is paying off.

“Projects succeed when people are allowed to do their best work”

• Defects tracking systems (DTS) are too often used as communication tools & entering unnecessary bugs can be wasteful. Focus on using DTS for the right reasons.
• Whether your team decides to create a test plan or not, the planning should be done. Each project is different, so don’t expect that the same solution will fit all.

• If your organisation is using some kind of process model or quality standard, educate yourself about it and work with the appropriate specialists in your organisation.
• Process improvement models and frameworks emphasize discipline and conformance to process.

“Standards simply enable you to measure your progress towards your goal”

• Working with existing quality processes and models is one of the biggest cultural issues you may face as you transition to agile development. All of these changes are hard, but when your whole team gets involves, none are insurmountable.