You are not ready for agile if…

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a long time. Who am I kidding, I don’t have the time right now, so I’ll let Andy do the talking:

You’re not ready for agile if you:

* behave territorially. You mark your territory like an aggressive dog, refusing to share power or information, and let everyone know if you weren’t included in the decision. When something new comes up, avoid it or kill it.
* are inflexible. You’ve got a policy for everything. If it’s not in the book, it doesn’t exist. This is the way we’ve always done it.
* grow uncomfortable with uncertainty. In an agile project, you will not know the project end date or even what features will be delivered in the next iteration. You cannot stand this, and will insist on fixed dates and costs right up front.
* treat developers as a commodity; a uniform, fungible resource. They are all alike. You can’t trust them to think for themselves, you’ve got to make the important decisions for them.
* believe development is a linear process. You ignore unpleasant feedback. Rather than acting on it, you always stick to the plan, just like a politician in an ill-advised military quagmire.

Read the whole post here.

As Andy says: Agility is a mindset. Call me back when you are willing to change your mind.