Working with Agile Teams has to be better
Like many folks I work in an environment where multiple methodologies are used. Some are insiders: the various and sundry Agile methodologies like Scrum, XP, Lean, etc. Others are outsiders: Waterfall, RUP, and so on. One thing I realized the other day was that it’s not enough just to make the “insiders” happy. The team can be as happy and cozy as peas in a pod with their Agile methodology, but if everyone else is miserable, then “Houston, we have a problem.”
With that in mind then, an Agile team has to provide the following experience for everyone in the organization:
1) They need to be more responsive 2) They need to be more organized 3) They need to be more helpful 4) They need to be faster, smarter, better, etc. 5) They need to be more fun to work with
If they aren’t demonstrably better in a whole host of different ways both measurable and intangible, then an Agile team isn’t really worth much. They can be productive as hell, but that’s not enough. If operations hates working with the Agile team because all they do is pump out code faster, then we may have made the teams life better at the expense of others in the company.
We need to keep the big picture in mind. Adopting Agile has to provide benefit to more than just the team and the product owner. It has to benefit sales, marketing, operations, security – the people who aren’t necessarily on the team.