Agile Adoption – Drivers and Detractors

Why do, or don’t, organizations adopt agile practices? Vijayasarathy and Turk study this issue in a paper published less than a month ago. They found that perceived norms and training are significant factors in promoting adoption of agile methods. Perceived benefits – such as the fact that TDD really does work – are not as important, unless there are problems, e.g. resistance from management, that prevent adopting agile practices.

I guess you can summarize this as

  • If you think you should do it (norm)
  • and you know how to do it (training)

then you probably will do it and you will only really consider if it is a good idea (benefits) if someone challenges you (hindrances).

Perhaps this is why we see so many instances where agile practices are adopted, but only in a limited way and in a limited part of the organization?

References

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About Greger Wikstrand

Greger Wikstrand, Ph.D. M.Sc. is a TOGAF 9 certified enterprise architect with an interest in e-heatlh, m-health and all things agile as well as processes, methods and tools. Greger Wikstrand works as a consultant at Capgemini where he alternates between enterprise agile coaching, problem solving and designing large scale e-health services ...

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