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Agile Transformation — Challenges and Path to Success

Agile Transformation

Agile transformation today is considered as a necessity as the traditional waterfall model has failed conclusively. Agile has led to phenomenal efficiency and has become de facto standard in the IT landscape today. Agile transformation is part of every organization’s technology roadmap with dedicated teams. Though numerous case studies are proving its effectiveness and great turnaround saving big businesses, it is still clouded in doubtfulness due to the demands that are less understood and wrongly enforced. This white paper addresses common pitfalls that were encountered during project execution particularly in an onsite-offshore / onsite/best-shore model and the learnings. If properly done, this could be a key game-changer that will not only push organizations towards a consistent growth path but also serve the society by reducing wastage and getting more things done in less than half the time.

Key Aspects of Agile Transformation

The benefits of agile transformation are

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When Transitioning to Agile, Let Value Be Your Guide

As companies old and new transition to Agile methodologies, different challenges present themselves. For some, it’s process. For others, it’s buy-in. For most; however, improving communication is a crucial step.

Adam Auerbach, the VP of quality engineering at EPAM Systems, has led a number of company transformations throughout his career. When transitioning to Agile, Auerbach recommends starting with a value stream analysis.

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Unified Agile-DevOps Transformation Model, Framework and Executable Roadmap for Large Organizations

Abstract

Agile-DevOps transformation and Continuous Delivery became the leading topic and highest priority for senior leadership, stakeholders, teams and customers alike. Agile-DevOps transformation is a fundamental change to the organization's culture, structure, people, and business/technical paradigms towards the next level of agility. It relies on Lean values and principles, and brings the highest level of collaboration, productivity, quality, flexibility and efficiency, cutting-edge technology, and competitive edge to your organization.

While some organizations succeed in their transformations, others fail. Agile-DevOps transformation can be ambiguous, disrupting, misdirecting, and even harmful if executed without the right guidance or led by the wrong people. Transformations primarily fail for two reasons. The first is the lack of a common vision, strategic approach and unified transformation model, framework, and roadmap that inhibits the agreement between change agents, leading to the inability to arrive at a single voice on how to orchestrate and implement change. The other is the agents’ limited knowledge and expertise or a tendency to follow on a previous success path regardless of the organization's uniqueness.

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Agile Isn’t Just for the Tech Sector Anymore

Even doctors can learn a thing or two hundred.

These days, Agile has grown beyond the IT sector and is being successfully applied in marketing, sales management, logistics, corporate governance, and more. 

Agile encompasses both the culture and the methodology that allows companies to adapt to the changes in the most effective manner.

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Balancing People, Process, and Technology for a True Agile Transformation

Before your company can stretch its Agile wings, it has to transform and learn to fly.

Agile is more than an individual framework; it is a journey of cultural change within an organization based upon continuous improvement. As an Agile transformational consultant, I am an agent of change for our clients. As Agilists, it is our job to help our clients see Agile for what it is and most importantly, what it is not.

Why Agile Fails: The PA-SA-WAKA-DA Theory

I find it very amusing that the first question from a client usually surrounds what tools we are going to use to lead their transformation. Many ask if they can continue to use Jira or some other tool they have grown accustomed to.

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Waterfall vs Agile Project Management: 7 Major Differences (And One Clear Winner)

In the battle between waterfall and agile project management, there can be only one winner. (I would have used an image from the film 'Highlander' if it weren't copyrighted.)

Everything changes over time. From music to clothes to cars, the list is endless.

Software development has followed the same evolution.For most of its history, software development was dominated by the Waterfall methodology. There just wasn’t a better alternative.

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6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing Agile at Scale

The benefits of Agile and lean business approaches are widely acknowledged, yet the effective adoption and embedding of these practices in big corporate environments is much easier said than done. The theory makes sense in textbooks, and the practice is easily embraced in small product teams. However, the scale, complexity, and characteristics of big organizations create significant challenges with implementing these philosophies.

Only 12% of respondents say that their organization has a high level of competency with Agile

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Agile Adolescence: The Gawky Teenage Years

As an Agile Coach, it’s exciting to watch a team of young agilists start their Agile journey. Some start with unbridled enthusiasm, others with fear and trepidation. They then crawl from Agile infants to toddlers learning how to communicate and play well with others, then move into Agile childhood where they begin to develop competencies and enjoy success. And then… [long pause] …they become Agile teenagers – yikes!

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve raised one teenager and have another now, and I love them even during their teenage years. There are great times at that age, and there are, well, less than great times too. Those growing in their agility go through stages similar to what my kids did. Some move through the teenage years with grace and style, some with a rebellious attitude, and unfortunately some stay in Agile adolescence way longer than they should. Being an Agile teenager is normal for a while, but just as we don’t want our children living in our basement, playing video games and eating Cheetos well into their 30’s, at some point every Agile teenager needs to grow into adulthood.

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Antipattern of the Month: Too Busy

Often, the very people whose involvement is most critical to an initiative are those who are least "available." Senior managers, for example, can have a deep level of domain experience which they have built up over years, and they can exert authority over important decisions. Enterprise architects and Product Owners, in particular, may have accumulated responsibilities over sweeping areas of organizational concern. Such people are notoriously time-poor, and can be unable or unwilling to focus on a single product or team. This means that they often fail to make the appropriate commitment to an Agile role, and do not demonstrate the quality of involvement expected of them.

One symptom is that they might see themselves as being "too busy" to fulfill the role and its responsibilities. A Product Owner, for example, may be "too busy" to attend Product Backlog refinement sessions, or perhaps even Sprint Planning, Sprint Reviews, and Sprint Retrospectives. They may allege that they "trust" the Development Team to make an appropriate delivery without their participation. This is unsatisfactory, as it means abdicating their collaborative responsibilities, and the inspection and adaptation of progress are compromised.

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The Importance of Agile Leaders

An Agile mindset is crucial in management roles for organizations that are moving towards Agility. I observed this while working in various organizations and currently am a witness of it while assisting my customers.

Decisions, actions, directions, and vision often come from the management level, especially in the hybrid world. When an organization thinks about applying Scrum, they shouldn’t expect only changes in how teams work, but also,  they should start considering how the management team intends to operate.

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Creating a Company Culture Where Agile Will Thrive

When I teach classes on the root causes of Agile project failure, I’m often asked which of the causes is most difficult to overcome. From an enterprise perspective, that is an easy answer: bad culture.

Sociologist Ron Westrum defines culture as “the patterned way that an organization responds to its challenges, whether these are explicit (for example, a crisis) or implicit (a latent problem or opportunity).” Westrum believes every organization fits into one of three cultural patterns: pathological, bureaucratic, or generative.

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5 Tips for Maximizing Value in Multi-Speed It Environments

In the majority of phased enterprise Agile transformation programs, multi-speed IT is unavoidable. When I say multi-speed IT, I refer to a world where Agile and waterfall (legacy) initiatives co-exist and need to work hand in hand to deliver business outcomes.

In the last two decades, I had the opportunity to work with different enterprises in a variety of industries helping their transformation journey. Every organization is different even if they operate in the same industry. The business needs, enterprise portfolio, and IT landscape vary from one organization to another. The agenda of transformation also differs from one to another resulting in different approaches, initiatives, and timelines. No matter what the approach an organization adopts for transformation (change and growth), the journey from current state to future state requires innovative strategies to sustain business operations during the period of transformation.

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The Illusion of Agility (What Most Agile Transformations End up Delivering)

Agility is a unique and continuously evolving state that is typical to a specific organization with its people and its history. A traditional (industrial) approach to becoming more Agile commonly creates no more than an illusion of agility.

Agility is a specific state as it reflects the unique lessons and learnings that an organization and its inhabitants went and go through, the way in which specific annoyances and hindrances were and are overcome, the many inspections and adaptations that occur along the journey. Agility is a unique signature with imprints of the people involved, their relationships and interactions, used and abandoned tools, processes, practices, constructs, within and across the many eco-systems that make out an organization, and potentially stretching across the organization’s boundaries.