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The reason there's been so much turnover of CIOs in the last ten years is because the end users – the CEOs, the CFOs and the division heads – are unhappy with the results. When IT professionals realize this, and realize that something like Agile gives them the opportunity to create better value for their businesses, then they're going to be a lot more willing to adopt it. I hope that development organizations are starting to see around that corner.

We WANT to go Agile. How do we overcome the skepticism at the CXO level?"

My recommendation would be "try it." Agile doesn't equal risk, but changing development methods does equal some risk

t can be a big deal to say: "I'm going to change our development methodology." It makes people sit up and want to dive into deep detail before getting on board. The question comes in the form of the old development methodology: "Let me see the high level plan and what the change will be in the deliverables and methodology over the next two years." This is exactly what you're trying to avoid by going to an Agile method.

try Agile on a few small projects, measure the results, talk to users about their satisfaction, and then readdress

nitiate the shift in the most change-prone areas first, and then work it backwards through the rest of the organization

It doesn't happen everywhere at all times, and it doesn't work in all areas. It's good to recognize that up front – that software development projects adapt to this easily, but an infrastructure project would have challenges with this approach. So, select a few areas that would naturally lend themselves to Agile, such as application development, gradually introduce it to these areas that need it most, and then measure results.

Again I'd say: "Try it." Agile transition is absolutely about organizational change. To win executive support we need to speak in terms of risk management, measurement and the bottom line.

ur last two releases have looked like me-too updates, where we are just barely keeping up with our competitors

We’ve been losing market share

If you can refer to a specific business issue and show the linkage, you are much more likely to get a receptive audience.  Here’s an example.

The CFO, developer and QA manager have different roles in the organization and their needs are different.  If you want to enlist their support, be sure you know who you are talking to and what they value.

Use Focused Messages for Key Individuals or Groups

certain volume of people who are enrolled in the idea of Agile before you’ll see adoption start to accelerate,

People have specific needs in their role and they want to understand how Agile will affect and benefit them directly.  

Developers, on the other hand, probably wants to know if they will have interesting work, the opportunity to learn new things and the ability to make an impact on the company’s products.

a QA manager is probably interested in hearing how Agile helps enrich the QA profession.

The focus isn’t on Agile, its on business, as it should be.

The easiest way to find out what interests someone is to ask them.  When you meet, leave plenty of time for talk.  Motoring through a well-rehearsed Agile presentation usually doesn’t work.  A lot of times I’ll have slides with me, but they are a backdrop for the conversation.  I’ll refer to slides when it helps move the conversation along, but otherwise don’t use them.  You might want to forget slides altogether and just draw things on a whiteboard as necessary.  This technique is particularly useful with an individual or a small group.  

Take it One Step Further: Collect Data to Gain Insight

you’ll be most effective tailoring your message if you invest some time conducting data through a series of structured interviews. 

First, you’ll need a small set of questions prepared for the interviews.  Here are some examples. What is working with our current methodology? What’s not working with our current methodology? How do you think Agile would help our organization? What concerns do you have about Agile?

Interview a wide range of people: developers, testers, business analysts, managers, product managers, senior management, project managers and someone from finance. 

When you conduct the interviews, it is good to have one interviewer who has the primary responsibility for talking and the other person who has the primary job of taking notes.  You can switch off roles each interview so no one person gets stuck in either role.  Here’s how I typically start off.  

stories that people tell about the organization and make sure you write them down

I put all of the information we’d gathered into a mind-mapping program (Mindjet) and grouped like things together.

Make sure you keep interesting stories intact.  Specifics will help you make your cases

When there’s numerical data, people engage with a presentation in an entirely different way than they do when there are stories.  I find stories more effective, but do what works for you.

As an Agile evangelist, you job is to get Agile deployed effectively.  Along the way there are many people will be willing to go out of their way to help if you effectively speak to their interests and concerns.