Being Agile: Eleven Breakthrough Techniques to Keep You from “Waterfalling Backward”

Management Needs to Actively Promote Innovation

I almost titled this section, “Management needs to actively enable agile.” In the experiences that Leslie and I have had with various teams, it’s often management that unwittingly forces teams to “waterfall backward.” These managers have not taken the time to learn about agile, nor do they understand how adopting agile requires a significant shift in thinking. Too many times managers force teams to conform to the old, waterfall ways of doing things because that’s all they (the managers) have ever known, and they haven’t embraced the continuous improvement mindset. As one example, such managers tend to ask for waterfall-oriented metrics such as KLoC estimates, defect “S-curves,” how many test cases ...