{"id":4954,"date":"2012-12-10T10:39:15","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T10:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/blog\/\/?p=4954"},"modified":"2023-01-20T09:37:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T09:37:33","slug":"agile-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/agile-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Agile Processes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In my work as an agile and lean consultant, there\u2019s sometimes a lot of discussion about \u201cprocesses\u201d. People I work with use different definitions of processes. Agile teams sometimes resist to processes, when they refer to the agile manifesto that says \u201cIndividuals and interactions over processes and tools\u201d. So the question: What are agile processes?<\/p>\n

My definition of a process is \u201cthe way we do things around here\u201d. It can be documented in a process description or quality system.<\/p>\n

But it can also be something that professionals do, simply because they have had similar training. What they have learned from experience, by frequently evaluating they way they work and look for improvements<\/a>. A team may agree to do things in a certain way, based upon shared beliefs. So in my opinion a process is what people actually do. That can differ from what they say they do, or from what is documented. For me it is the actual behavior that counts!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the process that changes, it\u2019s the people<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do I use the definition \u201cthe way we do things around here\u201d? The way to change results of an organization is by \"\"<\/a>changing the behavior of the professionals that work there. Writing new process documents or changing an existing one doesn\u2019t automatically result in change: a document is not a process. It\u2019s what people do that counts.<\/p>\n

Calling it \u201cthe way we do things around here\u201d doesn\u2019t mean that things should stay the same. \u201cThis is the way we do it\u201d is not a process, it\u2019s a denial<\/a>, an excuse for not willing to change. If the way things are done isn\u2019t effective, if it causes software to be delivered late, with insufficient quality<\/a>, then things must change. My opinion is that change always starts from how people are working right now, not from how it is written down in a document.<\/p>\n

Agile processes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have processes in agile? Of course! As an agile team you agreed to work in a certain way, which is your process. Every sprint you discuss how you will deliver the user stories, which is also a process step. And you continuously improve the way of working with retrospectives. Most agile teams use a Definition of Done, which I consider to be a process definition, written by the team itself. Agile<\/a> teams have shown to be a great way to deliver high quality software products<\/a>. So yes, there are processes in agile, and agile actually has some process management build in. Also the newest CMMI V1.3<\/a> recognizes Agile, and Agile processes, so you can use a combination of CMMI and Agile<\/a> to improve your business. You can even improve in an agile way<\/a>, to continuously increase the value that your company delivers to your customers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to hear from you: What is your definition of an \u201cagile process\u201d? How do you use it?<\/p>\n

More information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several articles are available that cover the agile topics mentioned in this blog:<\/p>\n

\uf0d8 Uncovering Better Ways to do Process Improvement<\/a>
\uf0d8 Becoming Agile and Lean<\/a>
\uf0d8 Agile Project Management<\/a>
\uf0d8 Golden Rules for Agile Process Improvement <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my work as an agile and lean consultant, there\u2019s sometimes a lot of discussion about \u201cprocesses\u201d. People I work with use different definitions of processes. Agile teams sometimes resist to processes, when they refer to the agile manifesto that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":44099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outsourcing"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Agile.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Ben Linders","author_link":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/author\/ben-linders\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51554,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions\/51554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridge-global.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}