Real World Agility: Practical Guidance for Agile Practitioners

Real World Agility: Practical Guidance for Agile Practitioners

by Daniel James Gullo
Released July 2016
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780134191768

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Book description

Proven Solutions for the Most Widespread and Frustrating Agile Challenges

“This book gives you the answers that a wise mentor would have given you, if you had one. Daniel Gullo shares his insights on the principal questions that everyone coming to the world of Agile will inevitably encounter. ” –From the foreword by Stephen Denning, author of The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management

Agile is becoming ubiquitous, but successful Agile implementation remains difficult. Organizations keep getting stuck on the same issues. However, with Real World Agility: Practical Guidance for Agile Practitioners, that need not happen to you.

World-renowned Agile coach and consultant Daniel James Gullo identifies and addresses nearly sixty widespread challenges faced by anyone trying to derive value from Agile. Drawing on his vast experience guiding Agile teams to success, Gullo helps you accurately diagnose your problems, describes each solution with maximum clarity, and concisely presents the details you need in order to act effectively.

This accessible guide is for every project participant and stakeholder: from ScrumMasters and team leads to developers, project managers, product owners, and customers. Gullo addresses methods ranging from Scrum to Kanban, guides you on scaling Agile, and even helps you apply it beyond software development.

Coverage includes

  • Making sense of Agile’s many “flavors”

  • Overcoming key hurdles in transitioning from waterfall

  • Addressing cultural obstacles

  • Meshing Agile teams with your management hierarchy

  • Engaging executives with Agile practices and values

  • Clarifying relationships among ScrumMasters, product owners, and project managers

  • Smoothly handling key tasks, such as organizing backlogs and defining sprints

  • Taking advantage of continuous integration and test-driven development

  • Bringing Agile to distributed teams and large product portfolios

    • Throughout, vignettes show exactly how Agile problems manifest in the real world–and how Gullo’s solutions can help you overcome them. As you learn from others’ experiences, you’ll quickly begin to see a clear path to success.

    Table of contents

    1. About This E-Book
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Dedication Page
    5. Contents
    6. Foreword
    7. Preface
      1. Real Experience
    8. Acknowledgments
    9. About the Author
    10. Chapter 1. Agile in General
      1. Waterfall Versus Agile
      2. An “Agile” Experiment
      3. Differences Between Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, PMP, and Other Methodologies
      4. Agile Is NOT for You ...
      5. Marketability of Scrum Certification and Consistency of Employment
      6. Certify THIS ...
      7. Getting the Most Value from Gatherings, Conferences, and Other Events
      8. I’m Certified—So, NOW What?
      9. Goodbye, My Friend
      10. Closing
    11. Chapter 2. Real Organizations
      1. How Can Scrum Scale to Work Successfully with Large Teams?
      2. SAFe SPC Training: A Reflection
        1. Overview
        2. SPC Class
        3. Conclusion
      3. What Is the Biggest Hurdle for a Company Transitioning from Waterfall to Scrum Methodology?
        1. The Sledgehammer
        2. The Shotgun
        3. The Bottom Liner
        4. The Rebellion
      4. Pigs in Zen
      5. How Do You Overcome the Culture of a Company That Is Not Conducive to the Scrum Ideology?
      6. How Do We Get Our Leaders Agile Trained?
      7. Closing
    12. Chapter 3. Real Products
      1. Do We Have the Insights We Need to Know What Customers Want Most/Next?
      2. Breaking Down Requirements to Epics and User Stories
      3. Nordstrom’s Knows What I Want
      4. Breaking Down the Product Backlog into Sprints
      5. Why Does Every Increment Need to Be Shippable/Valuable to an End User?
      6. What Is the Difference Between a Product Backlog and a Sprint Backlog?
      7. What Goes into Sprint Planning?
      8. What Is the Typical Duration for Sprints?
      9. What Is the Measure of Progress on Product Delivery/Approximate Completion Date?
      10. What’s Done Is Done: User Stories
      11. Story Points and the Burndown
      12. Psssst! I Can Get You Fixed Cost AND Fixed Dates!!
      13. What Are Some Trends of Burndown Charts and What Do the Patterns Indicate?
        1. Uptick
        2. Flat Line
        3. Sharp Drop
        4. Perfect Line
      14. Should We Make a Big Change Between Sprints?
      15. Closing
    13. Chapter 4. Real Teams
      1. What Are Some Tips on Self-Organization?
      2. How Does the ScrumMaster Fit in with the PO/PM in Terms of Ability to Drive Process?
      3. How to Ask a Question
      4. Should the Quality Assurance Team Be Inside or Outside?
      5. What One Skill Is Most Important to Being a ScrumMaster?
      6. How Can Scrum and Kanban Teams Work Together Effectively?
      7. Happiness Is YOUR Responsibility
        1. Do More by Doing Less
        2. You Are Required to Be Joyful
      8. Can a Team Member (Dev) Be an Effective ScrumMaster?
      9. How Do Teams Get True Autonomy from Management?
      10. What Can I Immediately Apply from a Training Course, Conference, or Seminar?
      11. Where Should You Place User Experience/User Interface (UX/UI) in a Scrum Team?
      12. In Scrum, Why All the Meetings?
        1. Release Planning Meeting
        2. Sprint Planning Meeting
        3. Daily Scrum
        4. Sprint Review Meeting
        5. Sprint Retrospective
        6. Product Backlog Refinement
        7. Overall
      13. What Is the Most Useful Way to Make People Accept Self-Management?
      14. Closing
    14. Chapter 5. Real People, Real Stories
      1. My Agile Journey
      2. My Agile Journey
      3. My Agile Journey
      4. My Agile Journey
        1. Startups Are Inherently Agile
        2. Migrating the Startups to the Agile Way of Working
        3. Requirement Management
        4. Assigning Multiple Agile Roles to a Single Person
        5. Pessimism of Clients
      5. My Agile Journey
      6. My Agile Journey
      7. My Agile Journey
        1. Sketch Using Personal Kanban
        2. Coaching with a Modified Daily Scrum
        3. Peer-working
        4. Hack Yourself
      8. My Agile Journey
        1. How I Got Started Doing What I Do
        2. My First Conversation About Agile
        3. My First Agile Transformation
        4. The Agile Intervention
        5. A Long Walk
        6. A Parting Word of Caution
      9. My Agile Journey
      10. My Agile Journey
      11. My Agile Journey
      12. My Agile Journey
      13. My Agile Journey
      14. My Agile Journey
    15. Chapter 6. Real Terms, Real Definitions
    16. Chapter 7. Real Books for Further Investigation
    17. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Real World Agility: Practical Guidance for Agile Practitioners
    • Author(s): Daniel James Gullo
    • Release date: July 2016
    • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
    • ISBN: 9780134191768