“Agile was created for software.”
“My team doesn’t build a product.”
“We’re not developers.”
I hear this a lot from teams who are interested in adopting Agile but who consider themselves a “non-technical” team.
It’s true that the first line of the Agile Manifesto says, “We are uncovering better ways of developing software…”
It’s also true that in the 21 years since the Agile Manifesto was created, we’ve come a long way.
A product is anything you produce. It doesn’t have to be something tangible. It could be a service or an idea. It doesn’t have to involve code. And it doesn’t have to be software.
A developer is anyone on the team who works on the product. It doesn’t have to be an engineer. Their title and their function don’t matter as long as they contribute to the work.
As an Agile Coach, I don’t care what product you’re developing.
I want to know if your priorities are clear to your team.
I want to know if you’re focused on your most important priorities.
Whether your team is collaborating to achieve those priorities.
If you’re working in small chunks of work that is documented and updated openly, synced on regularly, and you’re getting feedback on that work to shape what you’ll do next so your team is able to respond to changes.
I want your whole team to know what success looks like and be talking about how your work is going so you can always improve.
It doesn’t take “being technical” to do that.
All it takes is being Agile.
Photo by Walkator on Unsplash.