Agility is the simple way towards efficiency

Agility is the simple way towards efficiency

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  Agility is thesimple way towards efficiency Introduction I don’t stop to think that we lose a lot of money, energy and time to be complex, complex in our styles,inourdesires,inourworkand eveninourpassions,whilelifeshouldbe appreciatedwhenitis takenas simple.Yes but why I am speaking about this in the context of agility? Which relation with this subject? Simply, because agility is for me a story of simplicity. Handling life’s situations by simplicity is the best way to be flexible and agile to lead any change quickly and safely. We all knowthat we live inaworldof mutationsandchanges,where complexity is still the common practice within companies worldwide. And of course, limits are reached while challenges are permanent. In this context, agility becomes more and more the favorite subject that any change or transformationhastoconsider.The difficulty is to deal at the same time with people, technologies and processes withinacompany. Unfortunately,we can’t be sure that any Agile transformation will succeed, certainly if it is not accompanied by relevant Agile coaching. Let us elaborate deeply this matter. Agility trends Recenttrendsconfirmthatagility isbecominga reality inthe big companies. This is proven by more and more companies that are adopting this project management method. Many of them don’t hesitate to invest a lot of money to ensure a successful Agile transformation. Companies quicken up their strategic decision making with Agile. This results in more accurate business decisions via close cooperation between IT and other involved services and via swift test resultsdue toautomatedtools. ByusingAgile, organizational barriers are broken, allowing delivery mechanismstobecome anorm across organizationsof all sizesvia aligned cross functional teams to expandnew customerexperiencesandtoimprove businesses’ efficiency. No doubt at all that these
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  companies are lookingfor candidates with Agile experience. They will more and more look for candidateswith agile projectexperience.Youcanopenalmostany job description to verify this fact. Initially, Agile was the preferred management mode of IT start- ups. Their way of work allowed them to completely embrace Agile. For different reasons, big companies have only recently started to adopt Agile. Most of the wealthy companies have been averse to adopt the Agile IT transformation. But they are expected to come around and take advantage of software creation on Agile basis. More and more non-IT sectors like Military, production, real estate construction, architecture, finance and education start to adopt Agile frameworks too. The success of the Agile in the IT projects and other problem solving situations, creates an enthusiastic atmosphere. As a result of this, another issue raises when big companies try to generalize the Agile way of work to all departments. Agile application on complex projects is hard due to adopter’s doubts and the complexity of these companies' structure. To respond to this situation, a new concept for Large Scale Agile is on the move. Scaled Agile Frameworks like SAFe, leader in his market, Nexus, LESS, DAD and Kanban expand their market. Additional new ones are expected to arrive soon and to enter the market. Perhaps their success will be limited, many will disappear as quickly as they appear. Running Agile at an enterprise wide level and application of Agile on complex projects is hard due to adoption’s doubts about the best large scale framework. Anyagile expansioncannotbe reachedwithoutthe integration,coordination and agreement among the different Agile teams within a company. Even with these difficulties, Agile has successfully reachedthe portfoliolevel,andisexpectedtotake up cross portfolio planning, portfolio balancing, accounting and adhering to corporate governance. Another fact is that Product Portfolio management(PPM) will shift towards Application Development Lifecycle Management (ADLM). In the bestcases andfor more cost effectivity, bothof themwill at last converge. Project management offices (PMO), on the other hand, will become obsolete for the same reason. These trends make a certainty that companies, to remain more competitive, have to jump towards an Agile transformation. Agile transformation First of all, to ensure a successful Agile transformation, it is necessary to diagnose the current situation.Itisimportanttobe alignedwith the AS IS situation and center the inventory on IT and all related actors including top management in a transversal and shared way.
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  Once Agility transformationhas been decided, sharing the motivation and urgency of change is of great importance. The Agile transformation will have an impact on the entire organization,itsprocessesandits people. Alignment of all the company's actors on the urgency of the transformation is important to prepare and to resist to any strong turbulence generatedbythistransformation. The third step now is to create a team to put the changes in practice. The transformation must be carried out by a team supported by the top management, and involving the different departments of the company. The IT department of course, but also HR and the business departments are involved.Thiswill impactthe wholecompany,itsculture anditshabits.Itrequires a mandate fromthe managementwhichisthe sponsor.Thissupportiscritical to resist the temptation to withdraw whenteamsare facedwithfirsttemporaryproductivitylosses when changes are made. At this stage, it is necessary to adopt the change from the bottom up, and carry it from the top. Change has to be initiated within the project teams as well as in the management to come to a companywide understanding of the benefits, the stakes and the constraints. - At the decision-making level, the introduction of new methods and tools to manage the project portfolio (prioritization, KPI, etc.) will impact project teams. - At the level of the projectteams,the permanentadaptationof the practices and agile rituals that are put in place. Change initiated onlyfromthe bottom up or from the top down will be at the expense of the other party. During the Agile’s transformation implementation, do not forget the agile fundamentals when successfully implement the first pilot projects, note the practices and tools as well as the lessons learned.Start then the generalization of the experience with considering the human at each level. Multi-skilltrainedprofilesensuredbyspecializedAgile’scoaches,are the guarantorsof the successful of this operation. At thisstep,don’t miss to control continuously the cost and ensure that the necessary trainings are given towards the implied people, this is why the implication of HR is primordial at all levels. Now, as things evolve, it is necessary to proceed step by step and to measure. Introduction of change is conditioned by the ability to measure the results of that change in a step by step methodological and organizational way: - Align with the expected results of a change - Measure the impact (and the success) of the change
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  The all prerequisitesare now in place to accelerate the transformation, shared observation, alignment on emergency and sponsoring. But it remains to choose the first changes to operate. A good way to highlight this is to increase the rhythm of deliveries, for example, from a monthly deliverytoa15 days delivery.The stressimposedonthe processinplace naturallyrevealsthe points of friction to be addressed as a priority to insufflate the first changes towards more agility. But how companies can perform their Agile transformation without coaching? Agile Coaching For sure,we can’t ensure anysuccessful agiletransformationwithout efficientAgilecoaching. Teams and organizationsthatadoptagilityintheirwork, undertakeanagile transformationwiththe support of one or more agile coaches. The agile coaches guide teams through the transformation. Motivation and passion are two important elements driving the role of the Agile coach. He or she engages people to collaborate with each other, values them, seesand follows them when growing. He or she also has to find solutions to the different problems, bottlenecks and wastes. He or she has to focus on the company, its products, technologies it uses, its individuals, its departments (or tribesinthe Agile jargon) and of course its processes. Amonghisor her activities,he orshe will ensurespersonal growth,interactions,teaching,mentoring, coaching and facilitations and bring people together around the same objectives. His or her tools will be all the engineering practices, retrospectives, Agile process tools, feedback, data collection and visualization. Conclusion We see thattrendsconfirm that agile transformation is on the move. This cannot be a success story without the contribution and input of an Agile coaching accompanying it. At the end, if we are not prepared to the agility, it won’t work efficiently. It is all about our mindset. For sure, agility is the simple way to the simplicity and to flexibility! Why complicate thingswhentheycanbe simple?Orbyirony, whymake it simple whenwe canmake it complicated?