Change is never easy. Adopting agility means the whole company needs to change its mindset, not just a single team – in my case the R&D team.
A few months into my time with the development team, our CTO, JF, decided to make a big shift. We had to move from the traditional waterfall development to Agile. Whats’s this? Why do we need this? I just got used to the current ways of working. All sorts of questions popped up in my mind and again started to doubt myself. But for JF the goal was clear. We needed to boost our team’s efficiency, be more predictable for stakeholders, and improve overall visibility.
I can honestly say, it wasn’t a walk in the park, though, despite all the talk about Agile in the industry. We were comfortable with how things were. We didn’t want to change. But JF was determined to take us towards an Agile approach.
Changing our ways of working, especially something as big as adopting Agile methodologies, was met with resistance. The management layer, used to the existing practices, found it even harder to embrace the unknown. To tackle this, JF stayed firm in his vision. He brought in expertise by hiring a Scrum Master, KR, in the US office to stay closer to the management layer.
Understanding the importance of giving the team the right knowledge, JF arranged an in-house Agile training session. The entire team, including people from the management who flew over to Romania and even our newly hired manual tester, took part in the week-long workshop, learning the basics of Scrum and gaining practical insights into Agile practices.
I vividly recall us all sitting in a spacious room at our office, curious about what the training had in store for us. The trainer, an experienced Agile coach, quickly captured our attention, emphasizing the practical side over the theoretical. One exercise that left a lasting impression was the classic Agile Penny Game. We were divided into mixed teams of four, seated around tables, and tasked with flipping coins. It was remarkable how this seemingly simple game illustrated the power of flow and batch sizes. The hands-on experience drove home essential concepts, making the training both engaging and enlightening.
One of the initial challenges for my team was understanding how to estimate work in Story Points. What are Story Points? Hours or days make more sense for us. Even more questions and doubts popped up from figuring out the role of QA folks in estimation. Why is someone without coding expertise bringing input in estimating our tasks? Even within our team, senior members struggled with these changes. But my mentor RP played a crucial role in fostering an open mindset and working collaboratively to handle these challenges.
Armed with new knowledge and a commitment to trying new things, we started our first Agile Sprint—a four-week journey. The initial phase was tough, but it set the stage for iterative processes. Despite uncertainties, the team’s dedication and openness to something new gradually led to predictability.
As we adjusted and refined processes, predictability increased, stakeholders’ feedback turned more positive, and appreciation for the new ways of working grew. There were still skeptics, but the journey highlighted the importance of an open mindset and the understanding that repeating the same processes leads to stagnation.
JF’s bold decision to embrace Agile methodologies wasn’t just about changing processes. It sparked a profound cultural transformation in the company. This journey showcased the transformative power of adaptability, collaboration, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. The resistance faced, the initial uncertainties, and the eventual acceptance emphasized a fundamental truth: to progress, one must be willing to start doing something different. This journey soon become my testament to the idea that embracing change, even when faced with skepticism, is the catalyst for growth and evolution.
When was the last time you encountered change, and how did you handle it? 💡