Marcato

Agile adoption is a journey, and Marcato has structured its service offerings around five phases of adoption.  Here is a short summary of the goal of each phase:

. . .

Assess

The goal of this phase is to help Marcato understand the current state of your development organization and its readiness for Agile adoption.  Our consultant will work on site with your team for a period of 3 to 5 days. In that time they will meet with the major constituents of the effort, including the development teams, product management, and senior management.  With this background we will compile and present an assessment of the business goals for Agile, identify symptoms or “smells” to resolve, and deliver a plan for adoption.

. . .

Train

Marcato will work with your team to identify needed classroom or customized training to get your team up to speed on the core practices — and prepared to execute.  We will focus on learning the appropriate practices identified during the “Assess” phase.  Finally, we will continue to “sharpen the saw” throughout the engagement by leading the team through guided study of a reading list of materials selected to help with Agile adoption.

. . .

Deliver

In this phase, we assume a leadership role in the team to guide them through establishing an Agile rhythm.  We teach the important practices by example, and work with individuals in specific roles to make sure they understand what is needed from them in their new role.  In addition, a Marcato-affiliated offshore team with known experience in distributed, agile development can be introduced if an organization desires to incorporate that element.  The goal of this phase is to take the team through an entire delivery cycle and to ship functioning software as the ultimate measure of success.

. . .

Coach

Now that the team has experienced an Agile ship cycle, it’s time for them to show that they can do it again.  Our Marcato consultant remains involved in supporting and coaching team members in their respective roles, but during this phase it is up to the members of the team to self-direct and demonstrate that they can continue to function without outside support.

. . .

Sustain

While your teams are now self sufficient, even the best teams can find that they lose their rhythm.  This can happen for a variety of reasons, but the key is that we remain involved enough to recognize that it is happening and to take corrective action.  Marcato offers monitoring and tune-up services to make sure your investment is sustained indefinitely.