Over time, most companies evolve into a rigid structure struggling to overcome the challenges caused by a rigid workflow, static processes, inefficient teamwork, and an unchanging environment. We are living in an agile world and this rigidity can well kill the business; therefore, and in order to adapt, companies must try and adopt an agile ecosystem in order to thrive and survive.
As the name suggests, agile transformation involves adopting agile principles to help the company transition into a more healthy and agile environment which fosters adaptability and efficiency in all areas of the business. It aims at creating an environment where creativity and innovation thrive, where the employees are autonomous, and where management is rid from unnecessary rigidity. In fact, agile transformation is a make-over shift that includes all aspects of the business from culture and structure to processes and the leadership mindset, and for the purpose of embracing agile values.
The final purpose of agile transformation is for the company to have more autonomous and cross-functional teams, a reshaped customer satisfaction approach, less unnecessary processes with more action instead, as well as enhanced communication within the business.
It must be noted that an agile transformation must not be mistaken with a simple adoption of techniques to change the way work is done. Agile transformation is a holistic and an ongoing process of adopting agile values, principles, and practices in order to improve business outcomes. It requires adopting new tools and frameworks such as Scrum to transform the way teams work together, to pinpoint challenges in processes and facilitate them, to decrease the unnecessary bureaucracy and deliver results at a faster pace, and to change the whole mindset of the organization so that everyone understands why new agile practices are in place and why the old ones did not work. Its purpose is to transform the whole culture of the organization to embrace new agile values.
The Three Pillars of a Successful Agile Transformation
It is ideal for every business to establish change as a sustainable phenomenon within itself; however, sustainable change doesn’t come easy – it requires a great deal of effort and commitment. Time and again, it happens that businesses start transforming some procedures here and there, assign agile procedures to a few teams, and even roll out new tools, but their agile transformation endeavor comes to a halt. Therefore, we are going to introduce three pillars that every agile transformation effort must consider in order to succeed.
- The Culture and Mindset Change
Being agile is not only about simply changing procedures or patching some – it is a way of thinking. An agile mindset embraces change but also encourages collaboration and it never stigmatizes failure – on the contrary – it views failure as a learning opportunity.
As valuable as it is, changing the mindset is not easy, though, and it is one of the most insurmountable challenges there is for companies to go agile. It so happens that agile principles are in place in a company but teams don’t believe in it, they just do it and there are those who believe that change is a failure. Or even in numerous cases, there is talk of going agile but it is, in fact, still same old same old – that is, all words and no action; which is a killer for an agile transformation and it could have adverse effects on it in the long run.
There are certain ways, though, to make sure your agile transformation is right on track:
- Say why!
people usually respond better when they know the reasons why they are doing something; or at least when they ’think’ they know the reason. So, try to make sure all your staff know why the environment and the atmosphere are different, why they are doing things differently, and why the company is going agile altogether. This understanding helps them make better decisions in ambiguous situations.
- Top-down as well as bottom-up!
Going agile cannot necessarily be simply passed down from the managerial level to the employee level like your grandmother’s gold ring; it must be established in the whole ecosystem of the company. It might start from the top, but it must be received in the bottom – that is, all the staff and teams must welcome it, and receive it in order to send feedback to the top. In other words, going agile is not a one-way transition, it must travel both ways.
- Distribute evenly!
There are companies where some parts have gone agile while others have not. Inconsistency is a danger in this area. Try to keep everything smooth and consistent, like a smoothie. Don’t rush and don’t worry if the agility is spreading slowly; consistency matters more than a fast-paced unproportionate development.
- Share and care!
In order to build alignment and consistency, create forums where people can share their ideas and stories. They could give their opinions on which activities are agile and which are not. Such discussions always bring staff together and can bring opinions over agility closer over time.
- Organizational Structure and Teams
Your ultimate goal in an agile transformation plan is to help departments within a company transition from rigid and siloed into cross-functional and self-managing, capable of completing a task from concept to completion, and this is not possible without some hands-on actions and some fundamental change in the whole structure as well as within the teams.
- Define or redefine roles!
It could well be about names. It is not that easy to complete the tasks differently when you still have the same names. So, it is necessary to create new roles or redefine existing ones. It is not so uncommon in an agile company to have roles such as Scrum Master, Product Owner, or even a Scrum Team Developer. Try to define new responsibilities and modify old ones.
- Clarify Roles!
Confusion over responsibilities could well cause rigidity again. So, make sure everyone knows what exactly they are doing. For instance, the product owner is responsible for dealing with the backlog, Scrum Master facilitates the process, and Team Developers organize their team to deliver the product. Clarity can enhance agility.
- Make the Teams Self-organized!
Once the team members are thoroughly briefed on their roles, they must be encouraged to self-organize. Self-organized teams make decisions on their own but within a set of shared values and rules set forth by the management. In an agile environment, if a team is in a dilemma about a decision, the management will not make decisions for them; instead, the management will reiterate that the decisions are theirs and only theirs to make.
- Encourage Collaboration!
It is not only about good teamwork, as teamwork could be hampered by challenges, too. It is, in fact, about improved teamwork, about agile teamwork, it is about collaboration. Simple teamwork could fall into a sequenced task breakdown where members are like “I’ve done my job, now it’s their turn”; while an agile collaboration is based on shared ownership and shared values.
- Processes and Practices
If the mindset gives everyone the ‘why’ behind going agile, practices give them the ‘how’, and this is as important. User-stories, backlog refinement, sprint planning, iterative development, and incremental delivery are all the daily tools for agile companies. The traditional mindset of a big-bang delivery where the product or service is suddenly released with full features is totally outlawed in an agile ecosystem; here, an iterative, incremental delivery is the mindset. Processes and practices are the key in transitioning from a big-bang mindset into an iterative one. They help teams to collaborate and deliver more effectively. Just like defining new roles, you must define new practices, as well, or all teams will resort back to what they used to do before going agile.
All common practices regularly done in an agile environment, including daily scrums, sprints, writing stories, retrospectives, and agile estimation must be constantly enhanced in case they don’t fall back into old and rigid practices, that is:
- Sprints must be the right size to always lead to cadence.
- The daily scrum must be a collaborative planning session rather than a status report to the scrum master.
- stories must not be too long or vague.
And so on.
Tools
There are also tools including frameworks, software, and metrics that could help you as an agile manager to use when going agile:
- Mountain Goat Software offers training on many of these specific topics.
- Elements of Agile offers a free tool to help you assess your movement towards agility.
- Slack is a messaging app that can help teams have enhanced real-time conversations.
- Rally Software is a platform built for enterprise visibility and alignment. It connects every portfolio, program and product to your top-level business strategy.
- Lean is a project management tool which incorporates features such as value stream mapping, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Scrum is one of the most popular agile frameworks suitable for complex projects with changing requirements.
- Jira is a very popular project management tool particularly designed for large software development teams.
Apart from these tools, there are also formulated metrics which can be used to assess your Agile Transformation success. These metrics are measurable data points assisting you in evaluating your team’s progress. Some of these metrics are as follow:
- Velocity
- Sprint Burndown
- Lead Time
- Cycle Time
- Work In Progress (WIP)
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
We will try to break down and define these metrics and some more in another article.
The Benefits: why undertake an agile transformation plan
Agile transformation offers advantages that can be perceived over time:
- Improving efficiency
As agile companies have better collaboration within and among teams, this will directly affect the business’s efficiency. Departments are not obliged to focus only on their own tasks and they can get involved in other teams’ work.
- Increased market responsiveness and risk reduction
The constant iteration and the short feedback loop in agile companies allow them to respond more quickly to market shifts and customer needs. The constant iteration will also make early correction of risks more likely, thus lowering the overall project risk.
- Faster time-to-market and quality
The self-organized and autonomous teams in agile companies will dramatically shorten the time from concept to completion, leading to a faster release of the product. The iterative development inherent in agile environments will also ensure better quality of products.
- Enhanced customer and employee satisfaction
In an agile business ecosystem, customers receive better-quality and better-aligned products at a faster pace due to continuous feedback, and this will, in turn, further engage the employees, making them more productive, and thus leading to the customer and employee satisfaction at both ends.
How to Implement an Agile Transformation Plan: A Step-by-step Guide
Step 1: Define Vision. Identify the “why” behind the plan and establish it at both the employee and the managerial level. Embrace agile values.
Step 2: Start small. Try to help the current practices evolve into an agile framework rather than going for a big-bang rollout.
Step 3: Establish Leadership and coaching. Make sure leaders have an accurate understanding of what Agile is so they can commit to agile values.
Step 4: Scale Agile across the organization. Expand adoption of Agile all across the business until agile becomes the cultural norm in the company.
Key Challenges to Avoid During Agile Transformation
Conducting a successful agile transformation plan is easier said than done. It is a process that could take years to accomplish; therefore, you have to be mindful of some challenges.
- Resistance to change
This could mainly come from employees who have been accustomed to traditional ways of work. Resistance to change could also arise from uncertainty about the usefulness of the new practice. A clear communication of the novel idea and better establishment of the mindset on the part of the management can resolve this issue.
- Lack of agile know-how
Going agile requires technical expertise and to tackle this problem, managers must heavily invest in training and also hire coaches, if necessary.
- Vague visions
Without having a clear understanding of why agile transformation is under way, the whole organization will find itself in a muddy path with a blurry vision. Therefore, the managers must try and come up with the most lucid vision to feed all the layers of the business.
- Lack of cross-functional collaboration
A very common challenge faced by companies which are going agile is the presence of isolated organizational silos and the absence of proactive collaboration across teams. The company’s iterative development into an agile business and its accurate rollout of the roles and practices will definitely have a positive role in tackling this issue.
Conclusion
Agile transformation will allow companies to be more adaptive in a constantly changing market and to be more responsive to any subtle shift in their environment. The shortened feedback loop within an agile company will lead to better responsiveness to customer needs, thus making them more satisfied, which will, in turn, result in a more employee satisfaction as well.
All in all, agility is the solution to the challenges posed by an agile world and its markets.
FAQs about Agile Transformation
- Is Agile Transformation just for the IT or Software Development Department?
Agile refers to a complete transformation of an entire organization and it is not restricted to product development. However, software development and IT departments also undergo an agile transformation when the whole company does.
- How long does an Agile Transformation Solution take to implement?
In short: transformation takes time – specifically when the whole culture of the company must make a shift towards agile. Therefore, depending on how accustomed your company is to traditional mindsets, an agile transformation might take from a few months to years to complete.
Moreover, an agile transformation is a constant process requiring scaling and learning at the same time and it cannot be cross-referenced with time. You must go agile and then stay agile!
- What is the single biggest challenge to a successful Agile Transformation?
Depending on the various features of different companies, the biggest challenge could vary; however, based on experience and observation, changing the mindset into Agile is one of the hardest challenges to overcome among many organizations.
- What metrics should we use to measure the success of the transformation?
An Agile Transformation requires constant assessment on the part of leadership and managers. Managers must constantly cross-check practices against agile values and make sure everyone has a clear understanding of principles. However, as much as it is a matter of constant observation and cross-checking, there are methodologies, frameworks, and software that provide you with the necessary tools to make this assessment easier to conduct, a few of which were mentioned earlier in this article.
There are also different agile metrics to use, such as Lean Metrics, Scrum Metrics, Kanban Metrics, Delivery Metrics, and Outcome Metrics.
