agilemania.com

I just finished reading Dean Leffingwell’s Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises. Although I think the book was somewhat repetitive at times, the author did a very good job capturing the issues that large organizations face when introducing or expanding agile practices. Notable points that resonated with me are:

• The adoption of agile needs top-down support, e.g., CTO or CIO.
• To maximize agile benefits, companies may need to restructure to enable cross-functional teams to form.
• Large-scale, complex architectures need to be planned - they do not emerge successfully.
• The true power of agile comes from the positive dynamics created by collocation.

What does all this mean? That adopting agile in an enterprise is a non-trivial endeavor. It takes discipline, hard work, self awareness, sacrifice and dedication.

In addition, the practices that work for “agile in the small” do not always work for “agile in the large.” So, before you embark on an agile project, make sure that you engage your critical thinking skills and understand what works, and what doesn’t, at enterprise scale.

Welcome to agilemania (www.agilemania.com) - the only agile site dedicated to serving the needs of senior technology managers. Having been there, we understand that you need information that enables you to make informed decisions, manage resources effectively, and maximize your investment in technology.

Senior technology managers need information at a different level of abstraction, and need to understand the strategic imperatives driving technology adoption, tactical implementations, and associated risks.

This site contains white papers, links and presentations that you can use to educate yourself, advocate and promote agile within your organization, and augment your staff with seasoned, professional agile managers and master developers (MDs).

We hope that you find this site useful, educational and informative, and welcome your feedback. Please be an active participant, contribute ideas, and be an agile leader.