Succeeding with Agile

Choosing Between a Public Display and Stealth

I find that organizations willing to make a public display of agility are more likely to enjoy a successful transition than those that try a stealth approach. Always choose to make the transition publicly known when you are confident in Scrum and committed to the transition. Similarly, strongly consider a public display if you expect there will be stiff resistance to the change but want to overcome it quickly.

In contrast, choose a quieter approach when you want to experiment either with all of Scrum or just parts of it. For example, maybe you introduce daily meetings—don’t call them daily scrums in this case—and see how that works. Then introduce the idea of working in timeboxed sprints. If these ...