As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of the next, I'd like to pose a simple question for your consideration:

What is your agile aspiration?

Some teams are better with faster delivery, others with higher quality, and others with higher morale. The list of things that might make at team better is inexhaustible. But what if you wanted it all, not only for your team, but also for your whole organization?

A new book, Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy: Survive & Thrive on Disruption, by Jutta Eckstein and John Buck, looks at how to extend agile beyond the traditional software development group. While every organization could benefit from the ideas presented by Eckstein and Buck, their target audience is those who wish to "achieve revolutionary benefit across the board rather than only in the engineering department."

Eckstein and Buck note that frameworks and rules leave gaps. Some frameworks, like Scrum, are intentionally incomplete. An organization that tries to implement agile across the enterprise will soon stumble on these gaps. To succeed, Eckstein and Buck suggest a synthesized approach, drawing on more than one framework to create a unique and dynamic integrated whole. They call this approach "BOSSA nova," representing a synthesis of Beyond Budgeting, Open Space, Sociocracy and Agile.

Bossa nova also suggests an intricate dance, grounded in masterful improvisation, respectful of and reacting to the environment in which the dance take place. The frameworks provide the basic disciplines that give freedom to the dance.

If you are seeking ways to get more from agile in the new year, this book should be on your wish list for the holidays!