Agile Methodologies like XP, Scrum, and Crystal work great off-the-shelf for some organizations. But many companies struggle with practices that don't work for them, or find that these lightweight methodologies leave them without support for key aspects of their business. Most end up adopting a hybrid of multiple methodologies adapted for their specific context.

This is risky business - cherry-picking your favorite parts of agile methodologies can leave you without enough process, in danger of a chaotic, code-and-fix mentality that relies on heroics to ship any software at all. An incomplete Agile transition can leave you with crisis after crisis as you struggle to pick up the pieces of a broken process.

In this talk, we'll look at different trajectories organizations follow as they transition from Waterfall (or from no process at all) to Agile. We'll discuss key "process smells" that indicate you've gone past agility and are slipping into chaos mode. We'll also talk about how to redirect and get back on track if your agile transition is foundering.

This talk is appropriate for managers, programmers, testers, or anyone who is struggling (or wants to avoid struggling) with a transition to Agile development.

Alex Pukinskis is an Agile Coach for Rally Software Development, where he helps organizations of all sizes succeed with Agile methodologies. Prior to joining Rally, Alex worked as a project manager and coach at ThoughtWorks, where he helped large enterprise clients customize agile methodologies for their needs. Alex has also consulted independently, helping startups and independent software vendors improve quality and reduce time-to-market through Agile.

With a background that includes both technical work and management, Alex is skilled with hands-on coaching, mentoring, and training for the entire software life cycle. At Rally, Alex leads the technical coaching practice, guiding teams through agile engineering practices as well as agile project management techniques. Alex is a Certified ScrumMaster Practitioner (CSM-P), and holds a B.A. from the University of Connecticut.