Start With One

We all played at it when we were younger. “If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one person/item/food what would it be? As we prepare to enter the new year I thought I would ask a similar question. If you has to start down the path of Agility with only one process what would it be? This isn’t about what one value pair or principle you would follow. As an Agilist I hope that your preferred process does line up with one, but that’s not the point. All change has to start with something. If you were only allowed to do one change at the outset, what would that change be?

Maybe you would start with iterations in hopes of rapidly delivering value to your customer. Perhaps your first order of business would be to change your teams so that developers, testers, and business representatives are working together on product teams instead of separately on functional teams. It may be time for you to bring your product team and your customer together for some direct interaction.

Whatever the single step you could take is you should move forward with it. Every team and situation is different, and as such there are multiple right answers for what one thing you should start with. As a coach or agile change agent you may have a favorite that you lean towards starting with. I’ll be back after the new year to talk about my preferred starting point and why. In the meantime, feel free to share your preferred starting point and why.