That title sounds a bit like a setup for a religous debate. The reality isn't far from that - unfortunately! There are many agile trainers and coaches in the world. All of them have the best interests of their clients in mind. All of them believe they are good at what they do. All of them can tell great success stories. Unfortunately, that is where the similarities end.

 

There are two basic types of agile trainers/coaches. There are those who are dogmatic about the agile process. They are typified by saying things like "you must do this" or "do it this way or it won't work." In other words, they leave no room for teams to account for their unique situations. When a team says "we have unique needs to account for" these trainers/coaches simply reply by saying something like "you may think you are unique, but you really aren't." While this type of person may have some good results on their resume we always wonder if it was because of them or in spite of them.

 

The other type of agile trainer/coach takes a holistic view of the agile process. The process is simply a means to an end. The process embodies unchangeable principles, but may well have practices that differ across organizations or even across teams within an organization. We have a client with development teams that are off-shore and to be dogmatic about having a daily standup meeting would mean disrespecting people that are 12 timezones away (they either work early or late in order to make that meeting). In case you can't tell, we fall STRONGLY in the holistic camp. We want teams to be successful and to continue to improve. We don't want the process to limit them or to be a noose around their necks.

 

So if you or someone you know is evaluating agile trainers/coaches, have them ask a few questions about the agile process and how it is taught. In particular ask about how changes to the process are done if something simply cannot be done as prescribed. Take the "we want a prescription" approach and ask what the process will look like. If the answers are very specific then the possibility exists that the potential vendor is dogmatic in their approach. On the other hand, answers that mention things like underlying principles driving the practices that may be changed to fit any situation, then you are probably dealing with someone taking a holistic view.

 

Don't allow the agile community to continue to be polluted by people being dogmatic about the process! Remember, there is no single best way to do things.

Last month we mentioned that the website was finally live at http://www.agileforall.com. This month we have added a resources page (http://www.agileforall.com/resources) with links to books, organizations, groups and blogs that we feel are relevant to anyone using agile. Bob Hartman has also added a few more blog entries you may find intersting at http://www.agileforall.com/blog. The resources page and the blog page both get updated on a regular basis. Check back often to see new content. If you have suggestions for content on either page, email us!

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, a client created the "Agile Bob" nickname, and we like it, so we're going to use it for a bit of an advice column each month.

 

This month the topic is eliminating waste. This is usually the number one lean principle (we prefer to call them "agile principles" since agile is based on them). It encompasses many things, but in our experience teams and organizations try to eliminate too much waste too quickly. The end result is backing themselves into corners where the only escape is to "do things the old way." Instead, focus on eliminating waste as you come up against it rather than in one big operation. A good mantra to keep in mind is "just enough, just in time." This applies to everything in the development process from requirements to code to testing and everything in between. Try doing just enough, just in time on your next project and see how much waste will be eliminated. What you should find is that just enough waste got eliminated to make you deliver just in time!

 

If you attempt this (maybe even just for one iteration) please write and let us know how things went for you. We love to hear stories about when things work or even when they don't work. We learn from both types of situations!