Introduction

So there I was, unwarned and unprepared: “where angels fear to tread …” and the like. Lacking solid information about how to do a large-scale transition, we plowed ahead, trusting in our knowledge of the organization and the unwavering support of both management and the developers. Four years later, somewhat wiser and a tad wary, the transition has gone well. From new project management practices to new requirements management, new ways of getting customers involved in development, and new ways for developers to work; from human resource policy changes to remarkable improvements in product quality-I’ve learned a lot. Along with the team that was strategic to guiding the transition, we made some good decisions and some bad ones. During it all, I found myself frequently wishing for a resource I could use that would at least give me a clue whether we were headed in the right direction. That is the genesis of this book.