Getting Started
The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
If traditional and Waterfall-style software development are such failures, and if Lean and Agile software development are so much better, what is stopping everyone from switching? Of course, there are many, many reasons. This book is aimed squarely at what we think are two of the biggest reasons: fear and confusion.
Back in the days when the name IBM was almost synonymous with computers, there was a widespread saying that “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.” The point was that buying a computer from IBM was safe. It didn’t matter whether the project was a success or a failure; no one would blame you for going with IBM. The inverse implication was that if you went out on a limb and purchased a competitor’s computer, you’d definitely get blamed if anything went wrong.
Moving to Lean or Agile software development practices can elicit the same kind of fear. Sticking with the current method of developing software can seem like a safe path, whereas pushing for Lean or Agile software development practices might feel like going out on a limb and exposing your career to unnecessary risk.
Perhaps you can imagine yourself having just convinced your boss to let your team use that hot new Agile methodology on your new project, selling him on the promise of higher productivity and higher quality. Now your neck is on the line to deliver. There are so many new practices to understand and implement, and ...
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