2.5. Conclusion

Being an Agile software development team isn't about specific practices such as pair programming, or employing a certified Scrum master. It means being a learning organization. The true hallmark of an Agile team is that it learns and it changes. You can't achieve true Agility without learning.

You might be able to jump-start a team by adopting specific practices, but if you don't build in learning your agility will be fragile; most likely, it will depend on one or two individuals. The team may go through the motions of Agile development without understanding why, and will never develop its own Agile method to match your business needs.

True Agile software development is Lean development done by learning teams. It is unimportant whether it is done under the name of Crystal, XP, Feature-driven Development (FDD) or any other methodology. The rest of this book is aimed at helping make teams Agile through learning, and through sustaining that learning so that teams can continue to improve.

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