The word transformation means a complete change in form, nature, or appearance. Understandably, such a complete change will have its own challenges. An Agile transformation is in no way different.
This article will discuss agile transformation, why adopt such a transformation, the problems with non-agile methods, challenges faced during agile transformations, and ways to tackle them. This article aims to educate entrepreneurs, executives, delivery managers, and operations managers of mid-to-large software development and services companies about the challenges in adopting Agile methodologies.
Table of Contents
The Transformation
The process of transformation manifests in two different ways. First, every living entity is transforming itself continuously. Second, often, this transformation happens organically without any conscious efforts from the people involved or even anyone noticing the changes. Thus, all you have are the outcomes after a specific time that results from such transformation.
Another transformation is the conscious change management effort. When people in the organization, as part of the strategy or respond to external events influencing the organization’s progress, decide that they need the organization to demonstrate a different behavior and a different set of characteristics, there are deliberate transformational efforts.
For a successful, sustainable transformational initiative, the conscious effort should merge into an organic workflow that becomes part of the organizational routine.
When organizations talk about large-scale Agile Transformation, the conscious-to-organic transformation is essential. There are two reasons for that; one is that agility itself is relative. Its dynamics are ever-changing. In that sense, the agile transformation is a series of small, continuous transformational initiatives. The second reason is that such Continuous Improvement is the crux of agility. Hence, unless you are improving with every action all the time, you are missing out on the transformation to become an agile organization.
What is Agile transformation?
The current understanding of Agile stems primarily from the software delivery practices outlined in the Agile Manifesto. From that perspective, Agile is a project management framework that involves iterative processes to discover requirements and develop solutions through collaboration between self-organizing and cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development, and flexible responses to change.
Agile teams have used many methodologies and processes based on the principles listed in The Agile Manifesto over time. Of course, over the last couple of decades, the concepts of agility have found broad implementation scope and applicability into every realm of the business. However, the rapid pace of change and increasing uncertainty has shown that cosmetic agility, while still beneficial, may not be sufficient for companies to succeed in the years to come.
Agile transformation refers to transforming an entire organization and its form or nature gradually into an agile mindset. This agile adoption involves altering individuals’ & teams’ perspectives, processes & workflows related to services and product development and turning businesses into a collaborative, self-organizing, and adaptive attitude.
Why Agile? It’s all about Resilience
There are many misconceptions when it comes to Agile. And a lot of content is already written about it. So there is no point revisiting the common misconceptions. It suffices to say that adopting an agile mindset, culture, and structure provides the organization with a capable platform for growth. This growth comes from closer collaboration with the customers, as you continue to deliver the value to them at regular, frequent cycles. The feedback from them allows you to correct yourself faster. The collaboration also provides opportunities for innovation while reducing waste.
The agility also results in resilience. Resilience is the added capability to navigate through external and internal ups and downs. It is the result of small experiments and focusing the efforts where they make the most difference. In that sense, agility is adopting the Double Loop learning approach, where you flexibly alter and improve your approach as you learn more, achieve results, and progress.
So the Agile transformation is really about building resilience across your organization, including your management practices, product development & delivery processes, and organization structure.
Challenges of Agile Transformation
A change or transformation of any kind will face obstacles. Agile transformation is no different. Transforming an entire organization, its product development methodologies, processes, management, and mindsets will not happen overnight. Such changes take time. Before starting the agile transformation journey, it is essential to know beforehand the challenges and common pitfalls an organization will face.
Rushing the process
Agile transformation changes the DNA of an organization. The transformational initiatives of such a scale need to take an evolutionary approach. Agile itself promotes empiricism, where you undertake small experiments, validate the results, and then move on to the next step with more clarity on your Agile journey. The same approach is fruitful even while adopting agility.
Inadequate support
The management commitment is critical for the success of Agile transformation, especially as it is a mindset change. This change also impacts the organization structure, from top to bottom and from left to right. Without a firm and practical commitment from the organization’s top leaders, it is difficult to derive the true value of Agile effectively and efficiently.
Expecting too much too soon
While Agile will start delivering the value early, you must have realistic expectations about timelines. Also, Agile will not solve all your problems. It is meant to make your organization capable of managing and responding to the change better and improving your time to market. The positive effects of achieving such capabilities will influence other aspects of the organizational functioning too, but there will be areas where you will need to focus separately.
Getting limited by the frameworks
True agility is framework agnostic. However, frameworks are there for guidance. Hence, you should be careful while adopting the frameworks to direct your agile transformation initiatives. You should evaluate what would work for you and your team, experiment if needed, and then decide on such frameworks without being influenced by external frameworks.
Not Involving Teams
While support from the executive team for the transformation initiative is crucial, you can not adopt a push-from-the-top approach. Bottom-up agile transformation increases the chances of a successful transformation, as the delivery teams and development teams who actually execute the work are better aligned. Such alignment provides a robust foundation, and the rest of the organization can then base their performance on it.
Several other missteps can hinder successful transformation.
Agile Transformation Challenges
- There is a lack of alignment between the business strategy and the transformational roadmap.
- You don’t treat the transformation as a priority.
- Ignoring the cultural implications of the transformation.
- Ignoring the impact and required changes in the organization’s structure.
- Having a strategy is not enough. It would be best if you thought through the transformation’s pace considering the organization’s readiness, the willingness of the employees, and the availability of the resources, among others.
- Each organization is different. Without experimentation and iterations, the whole process might become challenging to undertake. Understanding your organizational culture, each individual business practice, and the far-reaching impact of the transformation for your organization is crucial.
Now that we have discussed the organisational barriers for the Agile transformation let’s also see how to approach it to increase success.
Agile Transformation Process
While being resilient is a worthy ultimate goal, the journey involves navigating through many small milestones and achievements. This road will differ from company to company. As the context matters, there can be only general guidelines about the roadmap.
- Figure out the short-term and reasonable long-term goals. The agility itself is not the final destination; it is the facilitator. As a business, what your goals are defines your approach and roadmap for transformation. Without the goals, it would be hard to determine if
- Understand the high-level dimensions of transformation. Then, define a high-level strategy and roadmap for the transformation. Especially where the organization will possibly have large-scale agile development teams as a result of the transformation, a thoughtful, all-around understanding is crucial.
- Acquiring the right resources: Acquiring resources involves hiring the right person or persons for designing, coaching, training, and implementing the change management initiatives based on Agile values and principles. The right Agile Coach can be an invaluable resource to guide the organisational transformation. In addition, the coach can work with the leadership teams to define and direct the Agile implementation. Lack of coaching is a common challenge for the organizations that are looking to transform.
- Ready the organization: Before taking such giant steps, the whole organization must be ready for it. Understand the challenges and changes such an enterprise-wide transformation will bring to the organization. Then, draw a roadmap to ensure that organizational structure, culture, and practices are aligned with the expected change. A pilot project at a team level or for a department may uncover issues and challenges that you might not think of otherwise.
- Taking action: After taking care of all the pre-requisites, the actual implementation begins. This part is more of a journey than a step. It involves different methods and agile processes that depend on the organization. Leadership emerges, and end goals are defined, roadmaps and fall-back plans are maintained, checkpoints are conducted, adapting and learning, and outcomes are measured. Essentially, this step is where you start adopting agile practices for individual teams as well as across functions.
- Sustaining the new framework: No change is successful if it is not appropriately maintained. In addition, once the transformation is complete, proper documentation of the entire journey will provide the teams to develop other methods to increase efficiency. A systematic review of the goals you have met and the gaps that still need to address will help you build the road-map further to achieve desired business outcomes.
Conclusion
An agile transformation changes the fundamental DNA of an organization. You might find it scary first, but the results are worth it when done with proper care and planning. Because with agile implementation, it becomes effortless to adapt to changes. It also helps you to be cost-effective as you can validate your ideas and products in small increments. The early feedback allows to recover from a mistake and spend efforts where it’s worth. Combined with the digital transformation, it ensures organizational resilience while navigating the uncertainty and complexity of today’s business environment.
