Chuck LEAN Business Consultant
Have you had experience with an agile transformation?
What are some of the problems you encountered?
What is the critical path to a successful agile transformation?
Why the need to transform into an organization of agility?
I do know that an Agile transformation will eventually affect the entire organization so there should be assessments conducted with members of each team or department, from top-down. Agile transformation is not applicable to only the members of the IT teams therefore all roles should be included. Assessments can also baseline an organization’s current state which can be used to compare mid-state or future state to help measure progress.
Do you have any agile transformation strategy to share?
Some key elements to an agile transformation:
Training
There needs to be a common understanding of what it means to be agile. Identification of what type of training and who should attend will ensure that the information delivered is consistent with all members in attendance. Training also helps to establish a common vocabulary.
Retrospections
An agile transformation strategy should be frequently inspected to ensure that the strategy is still relevant to the organization’s goals. Goals can change rapidly and those changes must be embraced. Agile transformation is an evolutionary process and the strategy should be revisited and discussed often to discuss what is working and what isn’t. Retrospections can also ensure that impediments are removed quickly and that successes are celebrated.
Coaching
Initial coaching, during and post-support is absolutely key when creating an agile transformation strategy. While training will provide book knowledge, a coach/consultant can provide firsthand knowledge about the actual practice based on previous experience with similar industries.
Metrics others Measures of Success
The organization needs to establish which metrics or other measures of success will need to be determined or gathered to understand if the goal of achieving organizational agility is on course. The types of metrics and to what depth will vary depending on the specific needs of the organization. The main goal of agility is to produce working quality software faster so in order to truly measure if the goal is on target, the software must be analyzed and measured.