Levent Gurses has an article, 10 Mistakes in Transitioning to Agile, in the Dec 2006 Dr. Dobbs Journal. He writes about the most common mistakes that companies make when transitioning from “legacy development methodologies†to agile ones. In this series of short articles for the winter holidays, we’re looking at each of the ten mistakes he identified. Enjoy the light reading, and don’t think too much about work.
Mistake 9: Choose Your Key People Poorly
Agile projects succeed or fail largely on the strength of the team. Don’t pick people based on experience or cost. The former is backward-looking and the latter is unrelated (or inversely related) to potential. Make staffing decisions based upon the likelihood of the team succeeding.
Our Addition
People trump process. Great people will succeed with any process (subject to political influence). Selection of people matters in any project, but matters especially when trying to change a company’s process.
