---
title: "How to start agile development in your team"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2009/11/16/how-to-start-agile-development-in-your-team.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2009/11/16/how-to-start-agile-development-in-your-team.html"
published: "2009-11-16T05:08:41"
updated: "2009-11-16T05:08:41"
tags: [".NET", "Agile"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "Got this in the mail: Hi Roy, From time to time I'm reading your blog, and I must say that I'm quite behind. I would like to start an Agile Process in our company, but to be honest I do not have any knowledge from where…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# How to start agile development in your team

By Roy Osherove November 16, 2009 In [.NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net), [Agile](https://osherove.com/blog/category/agile)

**Historical article** · Originally published November 16, 2009; technical details may be outdated.

Got this in the mail:

> _Hi Roy,
> From time to time I'm reading your blog, and I must say that I'm quite behind. I would like to start an Agile Process in our company, but to be honest I do not have any knowledge from where to start.
> So from where to start ?_

Wow. what a simple and powerful question.

I’d start incrementally, doing the things that are easiest but also make small “wins” for the team and process. Here is where I’d start (order matters)

1. [start doing daily stand up meeting](http://5whys.com/blog/daily-standup-meetings-introduction-and-5-useful-tips.html)
2. start doing automated builds
3. start [working in pairs](http://www.atlassian.com/agile/practices/code-quality.jsp) on relatively complicated problems
4. [start doing code reviews](http://5whys.com/blog/step-4-start-doing-code-reviews-seriously.html)
5. [start showing visible progress](http://5whys.com/blog/step-2-use-a-big-visible-board-with-post-it-notes.html)
6. start trying to show demos every two or three weeks
7. [start learning unit testing](http://artofunittesting.com/)
8. learn how to [code better, design better](https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258373192&sr=1-1)
9. start doing TDD

But, be sure to [have what it takes](http://5whys.com/) as a team lead to drive this thing.

I’m sure y’all in the comments can add to this discussion!

## More in .NET

[All posts in .NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net)

- Dec 30, 2009

    ### [Advanced .NET Debugging](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/12/30/advanced-net-debugging.html)

- Dec 30, 2009

    ### [The legend of free tools](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/12/30/the-legend-of-free-tools.html)

- Nov 13, 2009

    ### [Course: Leading Software Teams – Essential Practices for team leads](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/11/13/course-leading-software-teams-essential-practices-for-team-l.html)

- Nov 12, 2009

    ### [Test driven design – Willed vs. Forced Designs](https://osherove.com/blog/2009/11/12/test-driven-design-willed-vs-forced-designs.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/