The Agile Mind-Set: Making Agile Processes Work

by Gil Broza

Are you frustrated or disenchanted by the results of your Agile approach?Does Agile sound like a good idea, but you're not sure how to explain it beyond roles, practices, and meetings?Is your team going through the motions, but it's still business as usual?The missing piece is the Agile mind-set — the thinking that makes Agile processes work.This book is your compass for the Agile journey. Without prescribing any process, practice, or tool, it will show you how practitioners what to work onPlanning and doing the workEngaging people and performing as teamsWorking betterPragmatic and dogma-free, this book will help you understand what it means to be Agile and how to bring others along.I want to give this book to every executive and manager who asks why the transition is taking so long. I also recommend it for all Agile practitioners as a valuable source of insight beyond the processes and techniques described in other books. –Roger Brown, Agile Coach, Agile CrossingGil Broza is a kindred spirit to the pioneers of the Agile movement. He reminds us of the core values, principles, and behaviors of this enduring effort to bring joy and delight to producing software. To those new to the pursuit, he brings a lantern for the journey. –Rich Sheridan, CEO, Menlo InnovationsThe book's forewords are by Jim Highsmith and Linda Rising.Gil Broza has been helping organizations increase their business agility since 2004. Through coaching, training, and facilitation, he supports leaders in building engaged teams that live the Agile values and principles and that reap their benefits. His other popular book is The Human Side of Agile.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Technology, Leadership, Management

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2015

About the author

Gil Broza specializes in helping tech leaders deliver far better results by upgrading their organizations’ Agile ways of working. He also supports their non-software colleagues in creating real business agility in their teams. Gil has helped over 100 organizations achieve real, sustainable improvements by working with their unique value delivery contexts and focusing on mindset, culture, and leadership. Companies also invite Gil for specialized support, such as strategic mapping of their improvement journey, facilitation of organizational mindset workshops, and keynotes for internal conferences. He is the author of four highly acclaimed books: Deliver Better Results, The Agile Mind-Set, The Human Side of Agile, and Agile for Non-Software Teams. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

Reviews

[Elwin Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Agile book, much better than the first one (The Agile Samurai). A very broad stroke approach at Agile, which to the authors credit is a wise strategy as Agile has so many different flavors and even then still gets modified and molded to fit each individual organization. My favorite and biggest takeaway from this book was the content about feedback loops, which I found very interesting and something I feel like I can actually take advantage of "at the office."

I was sitting at around a 3.5 for this, but what resulted in my rounding up was the reference material that is freely available at the authors website. One of these reference materials is good enough to want me to print it out and stick it to my cubicle wall. I'd say that deserves a plus up for sure.

I recommend this book to anyone who is in an Agile environment, wants to learn more about Agile in general, or honestly just wants a little bit of professional development on teamwork and process improvement strategies.

[Dinah Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my mind this book is the de-facto Agile book. It teaches you how to BE agile, not just follow Agile Processes.

This is a key difference. I the great majority of people out there running "Agile" teams are actually just implementing Agile processes like stand ups, sprints, and demos, in a waterfall mindset. They aren't actually getting the benefits of being agile.

Processes are easy to adopt, but changing you mind-set is much harder. While harder, if you can get your organization operating in an agile mindset then you are going to see huge improvements in organizational performance. (More about that in the book Accelerate by by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim.

If you want an agile mind-set you need to read this book (Or better yet go to one of Gil's many courses)

[Haktan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book i listened in english. That's why, i might not have understood all the concepts thorougly. Still, i want to make some comment about it.

if you are interested in agile project management this book can be helpful for you. As the name suggests, author focuses on mindset rather practices. Basically, he claims that if you cannot get an agile mindset practices doesn't perform well. It seems plausible for me. There are many resources that give information about practices but they cannot help on agile transformation.

[Jack Vinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Need to think some more

This is a good read to understand the larger context of “agile”, particularly the mindset. I’ve been thinking a lot about mindset in general and the deep-seated beliefs that people have the guides them to do the things they do.

[Carina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for agile teams and organizations!

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Human Side of Agile: How to Help Your Team Deliver Gil Broza demonstrated his talent for explaining the intersection of process and practice. In the Agile Mindset, he helps readers bridge the gap between practice and understanding. There is more to agile than practices; to successfully implement agile you need to do more than follow the practices by rote. You need to deeply understand the values and principles that underlie agile practices, and work in a manner that is congruent with those values and principles. While there is a certain value in developing agile habits, rote execution of agile methods can only get you so far. Since processes are executed by people, bridging the gap between processes and principles can be hard to do. Broza demonstrates why, with examples and stories, and he gives you insights into how you move beyond "agile by habit."

This book is quite readable, and mixes ideas, examples, and stories to help you understand what the author's points are and to demonstrate how they work in practice. There are also worksheets on the book's web site to help you to evaluate your understanding of the agile mindset.

While there are a few small details of Broza's presentation that I didn't fully agree with, I believe that his underlying message is an important one for anyone working on an agile team to take to heart. While he summarizes his kep points in a few sentences at the start of the book, it's worth reading the entire book to understand his message fully.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Developing a product using Agile requires a mind set change and buy in at the fundamental levels of values, beliefs, and principles. At the base level, Agile values are people come first, change will happen and you and the team must be adaptable, value should be delivered often, and customers must be engaged in collaborative product development.

Gil Broza does a wonderful job outlining Agile and how to use it effectively.

Highly recommend.