Agile Transition - What you Need to Know Before Starting

Becoming an agile organization and gaining the significant benefits of organizational agility requires much more than changing the process and practices of development teams. This book is a perfect starting point for the Executive who needs to understand Agile before diving into the deep end of a change initiative. Tomasini and Kearns succinctly describe the theory of agile methods and their foundation in lean thinking: push vs. pull systems, defined vs. empirical process control, forms of waste from the lean perspective (Mura, muri, muda), the agile manifesto. The book paints a picture of how to assess your organization's current state and create a coherent strategy for implementing lasting change. It stresses the importance of people, and acknowledges the inherent complexity of organizations and change efforts. Short and to-the-point, it's a must-read!

I recommend Agile Transition for two very different audiences. The first is for those like myself who have been part of or witnessed several Agile transitions. At times it is difficult and I see many of us so focused on Agile that we forget why we do what we do. Martin and Andreas ground readers in customer value and move us away from being Agile because it is cool.

I especially like...

"Agile is not an entity, not a framework, and less than everything a methodology; it is a collection of values and principles that encourages a certain type of behavior"

The second audience that will find value in this read is those that are new to the principles, practices, and thinking of Agile. I believe it will be particularly interesting to those who can initiate or influence change in an organization. If you find yourself getting lost in Mura, Muri, Muda then flick down to Section 6 where it talks about Why this is important to an Agile transition.