Agile Adoption and Anti-patterns

Figure 1 - Agility Triangle

"We are going Agile", "We are Lean", "I'm a Scrum Certified Product Owner" - these are some of the classic one-liners most of us might have heard from different organizations and individuals in the software development industry. A classic response to such one-liners in a conversation would be an exclamation "Cool!" followed by questions like "What made you choose Agile?" or "How does a company get Lean?". It's a rare case when one responds with questions like "Are you sure you want to get Agile?" or "Do you have a set of DOs and DONTs while adopting Agile?".
In this article, I'm going touch upon a few key points that will help you decide if Agile is really for you / your organization, and remind you of some very key anti-patterns that are bound to reduce or negate the magnitude of success in Agile adoption.

Our Secret Ingredient is Our People - Part II

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In my last article, I tried to bring out the importance of hiring the right people for your company. We did look at some of the areas to focus on and some of the best practices in acquiring the right set of talented and passionate people, and also some good practices that companies follow today. This article is going to be the second one of the three part series where we will look at another critical piece of the puzzle - Retaining People.

Our Secret Ingredient is Our People - Part I

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Yes, you read the title right! How many of you have this as the core mantra of your company or business? In a world where everything is viewed as a commodity whose value essentially keeps fluctuating, the people factor is the only thing that can reap constant (often increased) returns. What the heck am I talking about, you may wonder. But I think the picture from a Wendy's wayside billboard advertisement says it all!

Today, with advancement in technology and with just enough cash in hand, acquiring
a set of technology tools and a bunch of people to work is no big deal. For this discussion I'd like to focus on just  the people factor. How many of you believe that the single most important and influencing factor of your business is your people? Of anything that goes into making of a company or a