Is your first agile project doomed?

Your last paragraph struck a chord with me.

YES, it requires A LOT of discipline.
YES, you have to TRUST the people around you.

It's easy to not have discipline, and it's easy to not trust people. I've worked in an environment where everyone was concerned about covering their own butts. After a 1 on 1 conversation, they'd ask me to email them our decision. Or if I promised them something, they'd ask for it in an email.

In my current company, a coworker asked if I wanted an email saying what we had just said. Feeling disgusted just for a moment, I recovered and politely said "no".

Agile development is harder that other types. It requires strict discipline, and it doesn't come easy. It requires actually solving problems and not hand-waving them.

Agile is just an umbrella for common-sense approaches that have worked for many people. Each team should be self-organizing: That includes deciding what process they will follow. You don't have to follow a big-bang project template. Discuss with your team one practice at a time to put in place.

If you're going to make a huge change to your process, then it's probably a good idea to have someone on the team for whom it's not completely new. In XP, this person is designated the "coach".

Also, be prepared for a dip in productivity as the rest of the team get up to speed.

I have to agree with Coach.

Apprenticeship is the fastest way to learn, so it's definitely helpful to have someone who has seen Agile work.

You need a team of developer with either no egos, or very co-operative superstars to make it work. Good luck finding that in the real world.

>>After a 1 on 1 conversation, they'd ask me to email them our decision. Or if I promised them something, they'd ask for it in an email. <<
It's not always about CYA. Some of us don't have very good memories so it's easier to remember what was decided if there was a record. Also you can forward an email on to others who perhaps should have been in on the conversation. You could just write out what was said, but an email from the person tends to carry more weight and have less of a 'chinese whispers' feel about it. Just MHO.

John,
In my case, it was CYA.

BTW, you can apply the same logic to offshoring (and I know a company that has done exactly that 4 times at twice price... and dare I say they are doing it a 5th time...)

I should blog about this... provided I can avoid being sued

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