I recently published a post over at the LeadingAgile website. I compared and agile transformation to a carburetor engine. It was based on an interesting exchange I had on Google+ about Agile process transformation successes and failures. Here is one of the comments from the other person. Tell me if it sounds familiar.

My previous employers had big problems with Agile. Attempted to use it multiple times and had a nice failure rate of 100%. As far as I know, they are trying again. I’m rather curious. Would be interesting to know how it turns out this time.

If you like it or not, I can pretty much guarantee that company mentioned above will fail again, if they don’t have the proper organizational structure, governance, and clearly defined criteria for progress and success. In other words, their agile process engine is going to stall.

If you've never started a car built before 1990, you need to realize that just turning the key won't get the engine running. All it will do, especially if it's cold, is crank away until the battery is dead as a door nail. Instead, you need to set the choke to allow the engine to suck in lots of raw gas so some of the vapor will ignite.

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Image Credit: Pictofigo