Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are Not the Point

Chapter 6. Aligned Leaders

Snapshot

There’s a lot to be learned by following a real agile transformation in a very large company: IBM. We look at what went right, what went wrong, how problems were overcome, what lessons were learned. We see how the definition of agile development—short, stable iterations with customer feedback every iteration—helped to align everyone in the organization, from development teams to executives.

Next we investigate how to bring about change in an organization. As it turns out, the biggest problem with changing the way things are done is often the existing governance system, typically a planning system in which performance targets are agreed upon in advance and financial rewards are dispensed accordingly. Another ...