Matt Frost has posted the first part of a series he's writing up about being an "Agent of Change" in your development organization with recommendations on how you can make changes for the better happen. In this first article, he looks at working up "the pitch" for new technology and practices.

We all to make changes that make our jobs easier, so if your change isn't meeting a need or helping to ease a pain point, it's probably not the right change. [...] Find something that makes your job harder or less enjoyable, there's a pretty good chance that you aren't the only one.

He recommends doing plenty of research before making your recommendations, especially if it's a "we should be doing, but don't know how to" kind of improvement. He uses test-driven development in his examples, with part of his pitch being that it reduces the number of bugs that make it into production.

When plans are well thought-out and researched, the element of risk that others perceive tends to dwindle. [...] It's not about pointing out the faults of others in the organization or assigning blame, it's about learning and making positive changes from the lessons you've learned.