To be successful with an agile transformation, it helps to know what one is. An agile transformation is a change in a group’s culture to embrace agility, including Agile values, principles and practices.
Another term often used by the agile community is “agile adoption”. An agile adoption occurs when a group or organization adopts agile practices as daily routine. In an agile adoption, there is typically a heavy emphasis on agile practices, like Sprints, the Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective in Scrum.
Another common term used is agile implementation — the adoption of agile principles in a methodical, step-by-step fashion. Agile implementations generally assume that agile can be implemented by following a plan.
So, which is best? The problem with “Agile Adoption” is that adopting agile practices alone is not enough. And, the problem with “Agile Implementation” is that there’s nothing routine nor predictable about changing culture. So, an agile transformation is most likely what your organization needs.
That’s why we call it the “Agile Transformation Playbook”. But, do agile transformations ever end? We’ll explain that next.