Topic Title:
Why does Agile adoption F.A.I.L? (first attempt at learning)

Initiator: Dominique McCarthy

Participants: Serg Ivanov, Dan Crowley, Mike Miller, Daniel Hamilton, Chris Levine, Bill Dean, Daniel Hirschlein, Eli Berrios, Bernie Manlapig, Oral Ashley, Patrick McClain

Discussion Highlights:
What is everyone’s experience with Agile — where are you in the process of adoption?

– What are the obstacles to adopting agile?
Understanding the agile methodology, not knowing the why of changing to agile
Implementing takes time
Cargo cult agile – building fake notions that the process will fix everything
No committment — top down and across other teams (sales sold specific product to be delivered on specific date)
People use buzzwords / terminology without really understanding them…getting them confused– agile, scrum, kanban
Understanding the why — want to be more responsive
Too easy to snap back to old ways
Unsure how to handle emergencies
Not understanding the context — Cynefin …agile is not the answer for all scenarios
Complicated │Complex
Chaos           │  Simple



– What are the solutions/ideas for action/next steps
Agile coach or evangelist to continue enterprise education
Create a space for adapting
Failure is ok → First Attempt at Learning…just experiments
Having Sprints/iterations to show work completed and allow opportunity to make changes
Prioritize; respect the sprint — if something comes in, something needs to come out
Use Visual tools to show stakeholders
Add in spikes, placeholders to allow time for research and production issues
Celebrate successes — even small ones — then more teams will want to adopt
Continuously retrospect and learn from the past — don’t ‘snap back to old ways’ and abandon all together