Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.
–Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian diplomat, historian, and political theorist (1469-1527)
While Agile has grown in acceptance over the last twenty years and is currently influencing organizational design and operations, a company taking on this change might consider moving slowly. In his recent book Sooner, Safer, Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility, Jonathan Smart coaches that moving too quickly for the sake of changing will not be effective. “Agile for Agile’s sake…does not necessarily lead to agility, to better outcomes.”
By adopting an incremental approach to change, an organization will realize a larger stream of benefits. In the real world, where institutions have legacy methodologies and people have an aversion to change, implementing agile methods can be challenging. TSI believes this is where an incremental approach can guarantee success.
Here are some challenges we see in making the move to Agile:
Product Owner
A product owner is ‘the voice of the customer’, the evangelist, and the decision-maker for the product. It is critical to have the right person in this role, to champion the effort within the organization. Additionally, they also provide the balance of skills between the operational and technical requirements of the project. To effectively guide the work of the development team, a product owner needs to be willing and able to commit the time to provide clear direction on priorities and requirements.
Projects that have multiple product owners introduce additional organizational complexity that can limit the effectiveness of Agile methods. Multiple owners blur the clear roles and responsibilities that Agile methods advocate. If there are multiple product owners, then a formal steering committee and prioritization process will need to be established. These will allow for the creation of release goals and provide the development team with the requirements to move forward.
“Do Agile Now!”
Agile is an approach that may require a new set of behaviors across an organization, from management and project sponsors, down to individual contributors. Most organizations have an established way that things get done; this relies on formal processes and tacit practices. Agile will change the project processes, roles, and responsibilities. It changes how work is measured and assessed. While some organizations want to move to Agile immediately, there is concern about speed. Creating Agile teams and launching projects without planning for the change, as well as the impacts on team members, is an organizational change management oversight. Simply put, it is a clear recipe for failure. Moving too quickly may result in a lack of clarity or insufficient time to educate and train.
In situations where a company wants to move urgently to Agile methods, it may be helpful to remember the sage wisdom of Machiavelli:
“And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”
–The Prince, Chapter 4
Make no mistake, adopting Agile is a new order of things for any team. It will require focus, a clear vision, organizational change management, and resource development. Without addressing the organizational and process changes needed to move to Agile, an organization prematurely puts its overall effectiveness at risk. If a company wants to start its transition to Agile quickly, it should identify a pilot project. Then, they can build a team around that effort to limit both the necessary investment, as well as increase the likelihood of success. Simple, incremental, value add.
Team Skills
Agile focuses on the ability to rapidly develop components of a solution with quality and to adapt dynamically to new requirements. It requires a highly skilled and experienced team. On an Agile project, the development team will need to be able to work quickly with the product owner. They will identify the type of solution to address the business need. This solution will focus on understanding what needs to be done and roughly how long it will take. This forward-looking ability requires experience and an understanding of the problem that is in scope.
Organizational Commitment
Agile requires a high level of commitment by everyone participating in the process. This is because the method exposes gaps, inefficiencies, and weaknesses very quickly. If an organization cannot dedicate resources, rapidly prioritize, elaborate requirements, define estimates, produce products, and expose their status and results comfortably, then they could have problems adopting Agile approaches.
Borrowing from Machiavelli again, “He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.”
To best avoid ruin, a company should tread lightly into Agile. Assessing a company’s readiness (both technical and cultural) for Agile methods is ideally the first step taken. It is much less expensive – and more effective – to define what needs to be done. Then, assess the organization’s readiness and adapt a launch plan.
Conversely, if a company tries to fully transition to Agile all at once and fails, they risk losing long-term support for Agile approaches. If you find your company isn’t ready to fully embrace Agile, then it’s wise to start with a pilot project. Be sure to start with the right team of experienced and interested business and technical people. Success with the pilot project should lead to support for delivering additional projects using Agile approaches. In addition, this success will generate interest (and excitement) within the organization!
