Tips to become more agile

11 tips to become more

agile

Tip # 1

Understand what agility is

Agility is not just the ability to change. It is a cultivated capability that enables an organization to respond in a timely, effective, and sustainable way when changing circumstances require it. 

Sourcehttp://www.strategy-business.com/article/00188?pg=all

Strategic adaptability refers to a company’s capacity to reconfigure its underlying business concept.

Strategic agility

Sourcehttp://www.managementexchange.com/blog/what-adaptability

Operational agility implies an ability to respond quickly to shifts in demand or customer preference within the boundaries of an existing business model. 

Operational agility

Sourcehttp://www.managementexchange.com/blog/what-adaptability

Tip # 2

Find out what is happening in the

external world

To keep all employees focused on the external environment, DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. abandoned the organization chart.

Sourcehttp://www.strategy-business.com/article/00188?pg=all

Tip # 3Be willing to give up

what will not be appropriate tomorrow

Managing agile organizations means being willing to give up the activities that make you successful today but that won’t be appropriate tomorrow - over and over again.

Sourcehttp://www.strategy-business.com/article/00188?pg=all

Tip # 4

Invest inhigh growth

opportunities

You can pull resources from slower declining businesses and put them against faster growing or more promising opportunities.

Sourcehttps://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategic_Thinking/Strategy_through_turbulence_An_interview_with_Don_Sull_2491

Tip # 5

Make the customer a partner

More customer collaboration – and less contract negotation.

Sourcehttp://agilemanifesto.org/

In agile development, the customer becomes part of the development team.

Plans are less documented. Communication in general becomes more personal and less documented.

Sourcehttp://kuperpresents.com/nycspin/Resources/RayBohem%20-%20AgileProjMgmt.pdf

Sourcehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/04/29/scrum-is-a-major-management-discovery/

The team reports to the client, not to the manager.

Customers control the development resources and have the flexibility to refine and change the business direction.

SourceJim Hill, Larissa T. Moss, Chris Sorenson, and Wyatt Weeks. BI Experts’ perspective: Agile Development.Business Intelligence Journal, Volume 14, Nr. 2.

One of the objectives of agile principles is removing bureaucracy from the development life cycle.

The ideal is to focus on providing value through interactions with the end users.

Source Larson, Deanne: BI Principles for Agile Development: Keeping Focused. Business Intelligence Journal, Volume 14, No. 4

Tip # 6

Work inshort cycles

Agile methods are a reaction to the bureaucracy, planning, and inflexibility of the waterfall approach.

Large projects are chopped into a series of smaller / shorter cycles.

Sourceshttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a988cd86-9759-11dc-9e08-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/16/how-do-you-explain-radical-management-or-agile-to-a-cfo/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/04/29/scrum-is-a-major-management-discovery/

Create a flow of value to customers by “chunking” feature delivery into small increments.

Sourcehttp://agile200x.com/2007/agile2007/downloads/handouts/Augustine_474.pdf

Define work goals before each cycle starts.

SourceSteve Denning.http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/04/29/scrum-is-a-major-management-discovery/

Tip # 7

Work in parallel steps

SourceSmith, Jeff: “An agile approach brings success.” Training and development in Australia, October, 2009.

25 years ago, projects were seen as being implemented like a waterfall – step 1 is completed, then step 2 and so on.

In contrast, we don’t assume that each phase is independent and will be complete before the next phase commences. Things happen in parallel, and they affect each other.

Waterfall approach Agile approach

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Time Time

Waterfall approach Agile approach

Linear process

Planning. Analysis. Development. Implementation.

Parallel process

Work simultaneouslyon planning, analysis,development, andimplementation.

Today’s hypercompetitive environment and the rapidly changing business landscape create a situation where the once-a-year strategic planning process is simple not sufficient.

Source Buhler, Patricia M.: Managing in the new millenium. SuperVision, November 2008.

Tip # 8

Set people free

Agile methods encourage team members to voluntarily sign up for tasks and share ownership instead of assigning task from the top down.

SourceXu, Peng: Coordination In Large Agile Projects.The Review of Business Information Systems; Fourth Quarter 2009.

Tasks are chosen, not assignedThe Web is an opt-in economy. Whether contributing to a blog, working on an open source project, or sharing advice in a forum, people choose to work on the things that interest them.

SourceHamel, Gary: The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500.http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500/

Recognizing individual team members as intelligent, skilled professional agents, and placing a value on their autonomy is fundamental to all other practices.

Sourcehttp://www.propernet.com/extranet/mcgill/CLASS%203/3.1%20-%20AgileProjectManagement.pdf

Tip # 9Communicate

openly and quickly

For an agile team to be able to adapt, information must be open and free flowing.

Sourcehttp://www.propernet.com/extranet/mcgill/CLASS%203/3.1%20-%20AgileProjectManagement.pdf

Rapid feedback to all stakeholders.

SourceFernandez, Daniel J. & Fernandez, John D.:Agile Project Management – Agilism versus Traditional Approaches.Journal of Computer Information Systems, Winter 2008-2009.

If documentation is too cumbersome and paper-based and impedes communication, then let’s make it flexible, accessible and electronic to enable communication.

SourceJones, Sara & Maiden, Neil: Agile Requirements. IEEE Software, May/June, 2010.

Tip # 10

Keep things simple

Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential.

Keep things as simple as possible as long as possible.

Sourceshttp://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/simple.htmlhttp://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

The idea of agile processes is born out of lean manufacturing processes.

One principle is “simplicity over complexity”. Another is “clarity over certainty”.

SourceSmith, Jeff: “An agile approach brings success.” Training and development in Australia, October, 2009.

Tip # 11

Test continuously

With an agile approach, testing occurs constantly through the interactions of stakeholders.

Source: Larson, Deanne: BI Principles for Agile Development: Keeping Focused. Business Intelligence Journal, Volume 14, No. 4

In the waterfall life cycle, testing occurs after development and assumes the responsibility of delivering quality.

This approach never works because it occurs too late in the life cycle to correct major defects, and little to no collaboration has occurred.

Source Larson, Deanne: BI Principles for Agile Development: Keeping Focused. Business Intelligence Journal, Volume 14, No. 4

Effective testing and innovation activities range from gathering further intelligence, to trying out new ideas on a small scale, to implementing full-scale product development programs. 

Sourcehttp://www.strategy-business.com/article/00188?pg=all

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