I have seen many Agile projects, particularly those focused on brand-new product lines, struggle with getting their infrastructure up and running. Much of the reason is the time and effort that is needed to get infrastructure established far exceeds the time it takes to start development using an Agile method, effectively the first iteration. Typically the approach used to establish infrastructure is ad hoc and often not always aligned with the needs of the project. Therefore, a task must be identified to establish infrastructure. The question then is, how to best approach the establishment of infrastructure for a project using Agile methods? We do not want to build excessive infrastructure that may constrain us in the future yet we want to establish enough to keep us stable and productive.

Many software engineering teams have adopted Agile. However, teams delivering process change tend to use traditional ‘lifecycle' approaches and have yet to embrace Agile. Why is that? Can the Agile approach be used to implement or facilitate process change?

While doing some research for an upcoming article, some thoughts gelled about where Agile Software Development lies on its evolutionary path. I was procrastinating somewhat, and while poking around some aviation-related sites I saw an image of a jet engine used on the current crop of regional jets.

In our continuing search for Hyper-Productivity, we have observed that a strong and highly adaptable shared sense of Common Purpose can increase the group's ability to execute on the project vision or enterprise strategy.

Agile teams apply several methods that support this. They self-organize around a common goal agreed with the customer. This goal is most often embodied in the set of stories or tasks to be included in the next iteration. A shared definition of "done," a "living" and dynamic backlog and an involved customer all help to remove ambiguity around the goal and keep each iteration adaptable to inevitable changes.