How to move a team from waterfall development model to scrum model? [closed]

Question

How to move a team from waterfall development model to scrum model? What all are the steps that one need to follow to achieve a smooth transition. What would be the acceptance curve and will it be successful altogether?

Answer 1

First the team needs to want the change, and the business has to support it.

There isn't a set sequence of steps, and success can vary widely, as much depends on your particular situation.

I'd recommend getting Mike Cohn's book Succeeding with Agile, which gives some excellent advice for such a transition.

Answer 2

Though there are many ideas on how to implement scrum within an organization, starting with one team is certainly a consistent thread. So good work on starting that way. From there find someone with experience in implementing agile. A contractor, a colleague, or advice at meetup groups. Here's a link to one I have attended in the DC area - http://groups.google.com/group/dcnova-scrum-user-group

From there, my opinion is to adapt scrum to your team. It's size, it's need for adjustment, etc. Everyone has opinions, but if your team doesn't buy it, it's not worth it. Don't take that as a license to cut things from scrum. Keep the daily standups, the commitment, the retrospectives, the demo (etc), but adjust the size of the sprint, etc.

I recently saw a compelling presentation that advocated implementing pieces of scrum/agile as the team/business was ready. See this gentelman's site for details - http://www.dragile.com/

A big key is to not get lazy - do scrum. And have a high standard. If you're going to go it alone (which can be dangerous) - read your heart out. Read examples, talk to others, go to meetups, etc. Don't let your inexperience in scrum sour your team to it.

Another good link for an example of one team's experience implementing scrum.
http://www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg/ScrumAndXpFromTheTrenches.pdf