The waves of Agile: Value delivery in medium and large organizations

Recommendations
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A great condensed book that makes you feel as if you’re having a conversation with Derk-Jan. Based on his wide expertise on the matter, he shares a lot of insights and gives recommendations on how to build quality systems and surf the three waves of Agile. Reading this book, you’ll find a comprehensive overview on how you, as a manager, Agile coach or team member, can be a part of the Agile journey.
Claudia Badell, Agile enthusiast, independent consultant and organizer of the TestingUy conference, Uruguay

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If you’ve been part of or are in the middle of an organizational transformation, you know how hard it is to be successful. Many organizations focus on changing processes and the way of working. Even though it brings good results quickly, it’s often a short-term change. There’s more to changing your organization and this book shows you all of it. With the focus on the relationship between leadership and coaches – in my eyes, a key relationship to make change happen. The practical tools, real-life experience and business cases – this book gives you everything you need to know to start making the change needed. A must read for all coaches and leaders.
Marcella Koopman, Head of Agile at Navico, New Zealand

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You’ve enjoyed Agile when you first started with like-minded colleagues. But as Agile grows into organizations and companies, you’ll feel like it doesn’t work well. If you want to give up Agile, read this book. It will be very helpful to you.
Murian Song, Agile & Software Testing Evangelist, Senior Consultant at STA Consulting, Korea

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Transformation is defined as a “thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.” Other definitional terms include “a metamorphosis” or a “spontaneous change.” In simple terms, Agile transformations are about broad and deep change both at an organizational and a personal level. As we’ve all experienced, change is hard, and to be brutally honest, you need all of the experienced help you can get to navigate these harsh waters. This book provides practical, seasoned, thoughtful real-world advice to help make your journey easier and your outcomes transformational. I also truly appreciate the quality focus that Derk-Jan brings to the table. It’s often a forgotten focus in effective transformation that nicely rounds the book out. I can’t recommend the book highly enough. Read it once. Reflect. Then read it again. Then transform!
Bob Galen, Director of Agile Practices at Zenergy Technologies, USA

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The BIQ circle as presented in this book very nicely visualizes the various possible levels of maturity in IT delivery teams. By describing how quality measures can be practically implemented in various stages of maturity, this book is a valuable addition and extension to the vision of delivering business value using IT.
Rik Marselis, principal quality consultant at Sogeti and fellow in the research network SogetiLabs, the Netherlands. He has contributed to a variety of papers, articles and books on quality and testing. He co-authored the 2020 TMAP book “Quality for DevOps teams.”

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Agile, with Scrum as the most adopted Agile framework, crossed the chasm around 2005- 2006. Around that time, Agile became an accepted way of working and started gradually replacing the old, waterfall way of working. As the adoption of Agile kept steadily increasing, more and more large organizations felt the need and the urgency to become more agile. Derk-Jan has supported several large organizations in achieving that purpose. He has collected his experience and observations in his book to help such large organizations embark on the journey of becoming more agile too. Derk-Jan hasn’t just summarized the nature of Agile but has listed and described what might happen along the road, what challenges might emerge and what are potential ways to tackle those events and challenges.
Gunther Verheyen, independent Scrum Caretaker and author of “Scrum – A pocket guide,” Belgium

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Energy, energy, energy and the talent to engage you. Derk-Jan has continued his coaching style on paper. A story in which Agile theory and his personal experiences are supplemented with concrete practices. A valuable handbook for me as an organizational coach. It’s not a script to follow from A to Z but offers hundreds of practices and insights that I can apply to improve my work.
Gijs Scheepers, transformation consultant and coach at Randstad Groep, the Netherlands

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Derk-Jan de Grood has written an important book for anyone who’s serious about aligning organizational agility to the delivery process of software-based products and services. He connects the rapidly changing consumer demands to the use of innovative development and testing practices. The book offers guidance for leadership and other organizational actors to take on their roles as the organization fast forwards into its future. At the core of his book is the recognition that agility comes in three waves. In whatever wave your organization finds itself, you’ll find practical tools and encouraging stories to facilitate the transition to the next wave.
Mariëlle Roozemond, chair of Agile MarCom Consortium and co-author of “Scrum in actie,” the Netherlands

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All kinds of common and persistent Agile transition pitfalls pass by express train. This practical book is highly recommended for any manager or consultant about to embark on an Agile journey!
Han Niessing, scrum master and Agile coach, the Netherlands

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One of the ideas that Derk-Jan has captured well in this book is that context is very important. Large organizations have different challenges than small co-located teams. It can be a long journey to transform these large organizations, and in his “three-waves” concept, Derk-Jan has captured how as coaches, we need to look at what the teams need in their journey and adjust our approach accordingly. I started with Chapter 4 and the three waves, but I think Part 6 might be the most important chapter in my mind – building in quality.
Janet Gregory, Agile testing coach and process consultant with DragonFire and author of, a.o., “More Agile testing: learning journeys for the whole team,” Canada