Agile Transformation is a never-ending Journey.
“Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.” ~ Bill Gates
In the present world, every organisation love to have the tagline “Agile”. Agility means ability to move quickly and easily. Increasing your company agility could be your best way to survive in today’s increasingly complex world.
I am part of many Agile Transformation projects, which involved success & failure stories. Based on personal experience, I can strongly say that Agile Transformation is not easy and doesn’t for every organisation . If you are someone planning to go with Agile Transformation or just started, please consider this post is for you.
Agile is all about understanding. If you don’t understand, you fail. Agile Manifesto deals with software development, not business outcomes. On the other hand, organizational agility is the capability to adapt to changing market conditions, which was never the objective.
First of all, before we even start the transformation, we need to find our WHY, here is some example :
- WHY we should transform / change?
- WHY don’t we just use our current process? It works fine for years.
After we find the answer of our WHYs, we can dig deeper by using the other “W” in “5W + 1H” questions :
- What happen if we transform? What happen if we don’t?
- What is our objective & success criteria?
- Who should lead & run the transformation?
- When should we start?
- Where should we start (which function / area)?
- How should we do it?
Once your company has made the decision to become agile, the next step is the question of how? How do I start my transformation? What do I have to consider and who do I need to do it? Where to start with?
Agile transformation journey takes a traditional company through a series of steps to adopt new Agile ways of working, which sometimes implies as much as changing the mindset by which the company exists, putting Agile values and principles at its core. The goal for the transformation cannot be to do Agile. Understanding and communicating the business objectives that will be achieved with the transformation is a critical first step.
The Agile Transformation journey itself was not easy and very challenging. Hopefully this article can inspire everyone who are on progress doing the transformation or plan to do it in the future.
With Agile Transformation, your job is not just done. You have to make sure to evaluate the Transformation. Here are some basic set of points that need sto be considered after the successful Agile Transformation.
- Keep evaluating & inspect the current process (what went well? what needs to be improved?)
- Adapt to changes
- Continuous Improvement
- Find a new way or method and do some experimentation
- Revisit & improve the Metrics to measure the agility
- Scaling up the Agility in company-wide
- Unlearn, Learn & Relearn!
Every company / institution has their own challenges, find your own best & suitable way to conquer your journey to Agility, there is no silver bullet.
Conclusion
To summarize it, here are the steps that might help to do the Agile Transformation in your company / institution :
- Start with WHY
- Set the EXPECTATION & Success Criteria. Define the methodology, framework, how-to, etc
- Get a buys-in & SPONSOR to support the transformation
- Establish & train the team who will become the Agile CHAMPION
- COMMUNICATION is key. Socialize it, give workshop & training to inject the Mindset
- Start PILOTING in 1 or 2 suitable team
- Evaluate, get feedback & continuously IMPROVE
- Create a SUCCESS STORY for the pilot teams
- ROLL-OUT to other team in the organization
Agility is more than the Scrum or Kanban method, more than the meetings for planning and review, more than the role of the Product Owner and the Scrum Master. Agility is an attitude. It appeals to our own behavior, our way of thinking and our cooperation with others. Such a change does not happen in a meeting or a training, it is a journey that everyone has to take. The best solution for your agile organization can therefore only be found through yourself.
It’s a never-ending journey, enjoy the process. Cheers!
Sources & References: Tommy Fadillah,
https://adaptmethodology.com/agile-transformation-roadmap/
https://www.castsoftware.com/research-labs/agile-transformation-roadmap
https://www.q-perior.com/en/blog/roadmap-for-agile-transformation/
Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below. If you enjoyed this or any other posts, I’d be honored if you’d share them with your family, friends, and followers!
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