Is Agile Transformation in right hand: White Paper

Sachidananda Panda (SPC4.0, SP, CSM, Six Sigma Green Belt) 12/29/2016

WHEN AGILE TRANSFORMATION NOT IN RIGHT HANDWhen the problems like poor quality, losing trust of the customer, delay to the market arise then management thinks to move ahead from the existing traditional SDLC process to different process. Most of the time Agile will solve these issues. So the organization need to go with Agile transformation process. But the transformation process is not a smooth road. The right leader need to be chosen for the transformation who believe in Servant Leadership instead of Bossy in nature. If the transformation goes to an incapable or different mindset boss (not a leader) then the transformation to Agile will fail or it may be a never ending process.

− Management will have an impression that Agile is not the right approach to solve the above issue.

− Team will think, they were happy in traditional model but suddenly Agile screwed up everything and now they are in fragile world.

− Customer satisfaction will go in a toss.

− Nobody will think about the boss because as per him he transformed in his previous organizations successfully even though he does not have understanding about Agile mindset. Nobody will go and check his previous organization transformation success story. Moreover, if it had succeeded also what role the boss has played in the transformation process nobody will verify.

Conclusion will be Agile failed not the boss.

QUALITY OF THE AGILE TRANFORMATION LEAD:The successful person for this role should be a dynamic leader who has worked on a process improvement team at a top tier consulting firm or in a large corporation.  He/she will have a demonstrated ability to influence peers and business leaders.  This person must be comfortable with ambiguity, and able to work collaboratively with key leaders to shape the priorities and manage engagements to completion. 

− Leads Positively: Leads by example to cultivate a climate of motivation, positive energy and meaning in work. Empowers and guides associates to take personal responsibility, encouraging them to productively learn, flourish, and strengthen team capacity. Assesses,

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selects, recognizes, and develops diverse talent to capitalize on competencies, ideas and passions.

− Acts Strategically: Sees how decisions can impact the whole of the organization and makes decisions using a broad knowledge of the long-term vision, values, risk acceptance and strategy of the organization. Uses an enterprise-wide perspective to translate strategies into actions, creating a clear view of the future state. Inspires others to embrace and advance the strategy as it evolves and is realized.

− Customer Focus: Connects meaningfully with internal and external customers to build emotional engagement and customer advocacy. Develops and applies deep customer knowledge and intimacy to develop and deliver work that provides value beyond expectations. Simplifies complexity and integrates internal efforts to deliver an optimal customer experience

− Accountability: Meets established expectations and takes responsibility for achieving results; encourages others to do the same. Employs focus, attention to detail, reliability, and appropriate prioritization to drive outcomes. Sees opportunities to contribute and takes the initiative to create solutions

− Facilitator and servant leader who empowers the team to self-organize      

− Creates culture where creativity and innovation can flourish

− Removes impediments in the way of the team making progress

− Protects the team from outside sources of disruption

− Coaches the team on effective ceremony execution (standups, estimation, backlog grooming, demonstrations, retrospectives – inspect and adapt workshops)

− Radiates information that ensures team’s progress/success is highly visible to stakeholders and the team (backlogs, burndown charts, etc.)

− Supports the product owner with the communication of updates and impediments as well as with backlog maintenance

− Improves team’s engineering quality practices by encouraging  Test Driven Development (TDD), pair programming, test automation, continuous integration, collective ownership

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− Ensures team adheres to the Agile process and program level working agreement regarding cadence, tool usage and a variety of procedures that must be synchronized to be effective as a program

KEY POINTS FOR THE AGILE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

− Get the support from the top leadership

− Involve the leadership and make responsible for the Agile transformation process instead of only providing them on the status. It will help in avoiding the organizational politics.

− Make it clear the approach for the Agile transformation is TOP-DOWN approach not the BOTTOM-UP approach.

− Create a strategic and tactic plan for the transformation. The plans are active because based on the inspect and adapt the task will be added/modified.

− Perform a gap analysis or pain point analysis in the current process of the organization and include them in the agile transformation plan.

− Create a team for the agile transformation with right skill set and previous experience on the same. If within the organization expertise (not theoretical) not available, then go for external consultants.

− Prepare to perform the re-org if required and take help of HR to define the functional roles as well as the HR roles for each level of the organization.

− Instead of big bang transformation select an ART and start the training for them and then coach them.

− Show the short wins and success story.

− Execute the Transformation plan for the rest of the organization.

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− Take help of the 1st phase transformed teams for advocating the benefits and sharing the challenges and educating others about the procedures to overcome from the challenges.

− Prepare for Inspect and adapt.

− Create an environment where employees think the transformation is not only a process change it is a mindset change.

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