Tailor at your own risk

I signed up to speak at the next Cincinnati SPIN meeting next week. I plan to talk a bit about adapting agile methods such as SCRUM to work in distributed environments. Or just tailoring your current methods to introduce some agileness. I have a fair amount of anxiety on this topic.
What I fear is encouraging people to pick and choose from a set of Agile methods and then get in deeper trouble or further spread misconceptions. I believe processes like Scrum are the result of considering a particular development scenario and then putting it through a lean process filter. The outcome is a small tight set of processes where nothing is optional. (retrospectives, user stories, close customer collaboration, etc. ) Where some one to cherry pick a few of those processes and then claim to be doing Scrum it could be a big problem. Hence I think the difference between SCRUM and agile is like the difference between a set of values and a coherent integrated set of processes. Values are more abstract and processes are more concrete. It is like democracy and the government system of a particualr country. Agile is to democracy as Scrum is the the UK system of government.

On the other side of the coin I consider the multiple places I have worked or served as a process mentor and despite what ever label they apply: RUP, extreme programming, FDD or scrum there are still considerable variations among groups the profess to be following the same process. I believe that we tend to believe that things are more alike than they really are for groups who profess to be following a certain process. We under appreciate the tacit and implicit customizations that each group adopts. These adoptions are critical success factors.

Bottom line there is no magic bullet best practice. The art and science is in the tailoring and adaption of the broad range of best practices as identified by SEI or PMI with a values foundation as expressed in the Agile Manifesto. People over process, working software over extensive documentation, etc. Think like an agilest but make sure you have a story for dealing with scope management, risk etc.

I thought I was pretty smart 10 years ago when I had 20 years of experience. Now that I have 30 years of experience I realize how difficult this is and I have even less confidence. What I do appreciate is the wisdom I draw from all schools of thought and bodies of knowledge. Comming up with the most appropiate development and project management process is a very challenging endevor. The good news is there is now a lot of wisdom to draw from. Good Luck.