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Everything you want to know about Agile

Everything you want to know about Agile

by Jamie Lynn Cooke
Publisher: IT Governance Publishing
Release Date: April 2012
ISBN: 9781849283366
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Book Description

Deliver exceptional results from your IT department using Agile approaches. This book will show you how.

The bottom line:

Everything you want to know about Agile comprehensively addresses the issues that IT departments face when they try to implement Agile approaches within the constraints of their traditional organizations, including existing project frameworks, budgeting structures, contracts and corporate reporting. It is an essential resource for IT departments that want to deliver successful Agile results, even in the most challenging environments.

Making Agile work in your organization:

The author, Jamie Lynn Cooke, explains the motivation for writing this book, 'When I go to Agile industry events, I find that attendees tend to fall into two camps: The people who are actively using Agile approaches and who want to make them even more effective; and the people who are frustrated because there are too many barriers in their organization for Agile to be adopted. Everything you want to know about Agile was written for the frustrated people. (Well, really, it was written for their managers.) It is a step-by-step guide for decision-makers to address and overcome the hurdles in Agile adoption within their organizations.'

The book is written specifically to address the challenges of implementing Agile within the unique structures, constraints and culture of your organization. It describes Agile methodologies in clear business language specifically written for business professionals, providing you with the information that you need to:

  • assess whether Agile is right for your department
  • select the Agile methodologies and practices that are best suited to your work
  • successfully implement these approaches in your department, and
  • monitor and measure the outcomes.

    • Most importantly, this book gives you a range of strategies for aligning Agile work within the reporting, budgeting, staffing and governance constraints of your organization, which is arguably the biggest challenge.

    What others are saying about this book:

    "... a superb resource that will allow information and knowledge professionals to succeed during the toughest of times ..."

    "... it does a great job of including real world insights, experiences and lessons learned while provided a professional (but still easy to read) insight into the world of Agile ... I found this book excellent and would not hesitate in recommending this ..." Jared Carstensen – Deloitte & Touche

    Written for IT decision makers (and those who want to influence them):

    Everything you want to know about Agile is written for executives, IT department managers and other senior decision makers, yet is equally valuable for IT project managers, team leaders and management consultants who want to deliver successful Agile results.

    If you are an IT professional already familiar with the benefits of Agile, this book can also help you to address management concerns that Agile approaches may not work within the traditional business practices and constraints of your organization.

    Agile methodologies and practices have been proven over the past two decades to increase the relevance, quality, flexibility and business value of software solutions. The IT departments of many large and successful organizations (including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and BT) have all delivered productivity gains through the adoption of Agile approaches. It worked for them, but will it work for you?

    Buy this book and start delivering results from today.

    Table of Contents

    1. Cover
    2. Title
    3. Copyright
    4. Foreword
    5. Preface
    6. Acknowledgements
    7. Contents
    8. Introduction
    9. Chapter 1: What is Agile?
    10. Chapter 2: A Five-Minute History of Agile
      1. Over-planning
      2. Insufficient communication
      3. “All-at-once” delivery
    11. Chapter 3: The Core Business Benefits of Agile
    12. Chapter 4: Common Agile Methodologies at a Glance
      1. Scrum
      2. Feature Driven Development
      3. eXtreme Programming
      4. Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
      5. Lean Development
      6. Kanban
      7. Rational Unified Process
      8. Essential Unified Process (EssUP)
      9. Agile Unified Process (AUP)
      10. Hybrid and emerging Agile methodologies
    13. Chapter 5: Who Uses Agile?
    14. Chapter 6: Why Don’t More Organizations Use Agile?
      1. Lack of awareness
      2. The “Business as usual” mindset
      3. “Agile does not fit within our organization”
      4. Agile myths
      5. Historical misapplication
    15. Chapter 7: Is Agile Right for My Department?
      1. Question one: What are the biggest challenges in my department?
      2. Question two: Am I looking for a “quick fix” solution?
      3. Question three: Are the people in my department prepared to change their “business as usual” routines?
      4. Question four: Are your executives prepared for your department to use Agile approaches?
      5. Question five: Are
      6. Question six: Are the intended participants sufficiently aware of Agile principles and practices?
    16. Chapter 8: Delivering Agile
      1. Choosing the right kick-off point
      2. Choosing the right methodologies and practices
      3. Creating a shared understanding of Agile
      4. Aligning Agile work with your traditional projects
      5. Conquering the tyranny of distance
      6. You might be surprised …
    17. Chapter 9: Selecting the Right Agile Approach for Your Needs
      1. New software development or maintenance?
      2. Business owners available?
      3. Teams of at least four to eight staff?
      4. Need for substantial documentation?
    18. Chapter 10: Using Agile Tools
      1. Measuring productivity by outputs
      2. Tracking overall progress in the requirements backlog
      3. Tracking day-to-day work in the delivery backlog
      4. The power of the “burndown” chart
      5. The real-time executive dashboard
      6. Early and continuous delivery tracking
    19. Chapter 11: Measuring Agile Success
      1. Monitoring progress
      2. Measuring value
      3. Signs that the team is off-track
      4. Controlling budget expenditure
      5. Continuous improvement
    20. Chapter 12: Aligning Agile with Your Corporate Culture
    21. Chapter 13: Managing Agile within Your Existing Project Frameworks
      1. Overview
      2. PMBOK
      3. PRINCE2
      4. CMMI
      5. ITIL
      6. Quality management
      7. Other frameworks
      8. The bottom line
    22. Chapter 14: Budgeting for Agile Work
      1. The ideal
      2. The reality
      3. The bottom line
    23. Chapter 15: Reporting on Agile Projects
      1. The ideal
      2. The reality
      3. The bottom line
    24. Chapter 16: Establishing Agile Contracts
      1. The ideal
      2. The reality
      3. The bottom line
    25. Chapter 17: Building the Right Agile Team
      1. The ideal
      2. The reality
      3. The bottom line
    26. Chapter 18: Conducting Performance Reviews for Agile Teams
      1. The ideal
      2. The reality
      3. The bottom line
    27. Chapter 19: Avoiding Common Agile Traps
      1. Undermining Agile principles
      2. Insufficient communication and/or training
      3. Using Agile as a doctrine instead of a tool
    28. Chapter 20: Expanding Agile
    29. Chapter 21: More Information on Agile
      1. General information on Agile
      2. Specific Agile methodologies
      3. Industry research on Agile
      4. Selected Agile case studies
      5. Information on TQM and KAIZEN
      6. Information on Lean manufacturing
    30. ITG Resources