Primer on Getting Started with OpenAgile

Concepts and information to be included

 * Just start!
 * Be patient and learn as you go

Quotes
"You have to find out what's right for you, so it's trial and error. You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself." - Teri Garr

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James

"If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success." - John D. Rockefeller

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?" - Buddha

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you." - Thomas Jefferson

Suggested Text for Publication
In many environments, starting to use OpenAgile is as simple as getting some people together, reading this Primer, and then starting in on your first Engagement Meeting for your first Cycle. However, sometimes a little more preparation is desired. Here are some things to consider:

Before Your First Cycle
Find out who will participate. This includes potential team or community members, and stakeholders. It is ideal if people volunteer out of interest in what you are doing, but often in organizations, management will have several people in mind who are assigned to a team. Remember that complementary skills are important.

It may facilitate the process to do some advance planning. If so, then you should work with stakeholders to generate an initial list of Value Drivers and put them in priority order. This could be just a few, up to hundreds depending on your situation.

The environment for how you are going to work includes both physical and electronic space and tools. Create your work environment to support the people who are participating. Ideally, a single team works in a single room together. If this is not possible, online collaboration and management tools are permissible.

Choose a Cycle duration and a start date for your first Cycle. This is determined by many factors including how far into the future your overall Goal is. Remember that you need several Cycles to work towards your Goal in order to get the full benefit of OpenAgile.

Finally, at a minimum you should consider taking the OpenAgile Team Member level training. If you are in an environment where success is critical, you should consider getting advanced assistance from someone who is able to give hands-on Guidance to your participants such as an experienced OpenAgile Tutor, Mentor or Catalyst.

Your First Cycle
Even with training from a Tutor, and coaching from a Mentor, you need to realistically set expectations. Specifically, things will be messy at first. You won't know your own capacity to make and keep commitments. Nor will you know how many interruptions to expect. You might feel a bit awkward going through the first few Cycles. Additional guidance in the form of someone to accompany you and your participants is the best assurance of making strong progress.

The Most Important Advice
Just start! OpenAgile is a simple framework that allows you and your participants to learn extremely quickly and effectively about your product, your people and your process. Getting started early means you have that much more time to make systematic improvements by actually trying to deliver value.

OpenAgile stresses the self-organization of teams. This often means that teams will develop their own creative methods of resolving conflicts, organizing their work environment, and other team issues. The implementation of OpenAgile in one workplace will look much different than in another organization. That is to be expected and encouraged. Each OpenAgile team must find what works for them. OpenAgile provides a solid framework for the development of exceptional teams, and high performance teams will use this framework creatively to do incredible things in your, or any, organization. Just Start!