The Journey to Agile Organizations
Agile has been known for around 20 years now and still remains a trending methodology.
Dozens of articles have already been written on the subjects of “How to”, “Successful cases”, “Reasons to fail”. Agile transformation can be quite a different experience for a big product software company or an outsourcing company, a big enterprise, or a startup.
Why companies need Agile Transformation
As it is well known, Agile fits perfectly for organizations that need to react nimbly to the market changes. What’s interesting is that Agile is not only for the young of heart.
Even big old corporations can and have benefited from Agile. Just like that, Microsoft has been tinkering with Agile in pockets since 2008 but had its real breakthrough in 2014. It was then when Satya Nadella became the CEO and decided to push through with the transformation, successfully getting rid of silos and bureaucracy as a result.
Just like Microsoft, there are a number of businesses that have succeeded in Agile adoption. However, some have failed and some do not even want to dive into this methodology treating it as something which is not working and not providing any benefits. It is actually true that not everyone needs Agile but the majority can successfully adapt it to their needs.
A big software company that is using standard waterfall methodology with a complex hierarchical structure usually is lucky to have two releases per year, as projects may take months if not years to complete. There is a long coding phase and after that lengthy testing. No need to say that all bugs found during the testing phase are not so easy to fix in a short term. Also, all bugs found in production may be fixed slowly due to bureaucratic company processes.
In the earlier years, such a situation would probably be suitable for customers, and keep the company at a leading position in the industry, nevertheless. However, competitors are always close by and looking for ways to upturn market positions.
Good management understands when changes are coming and that, to keep leading positions in the market, software delivery processes require changes.
By the 2010s, Agile was widely known already, and more and more big organizations were using it. Companies that desired to undergo the change that would give them a competitive advantage on the market, would have Agile implemented by company management with Scrum as a framework.
Agile Transformation Roadmap for your company: What to consider
When such a huge change is being implemented in a company, it’s good to have it introduced to all company employees beforehand. After all, it’s their effort and willingness to change that will essentially lead to a successful transition.
As it usually happens, different thoughts may arise regarding moving to Agile methodology. There is always somebody afraid to change. However, with good reasoning and after properly learning what Agile actually is, what changes it would bring to daily work and processes, teams generally meet the change positively.
Agile transformation is promising for the development team in the way that it brings more involvement for developers in the actual software development process through all the scrum events, meaning that developers would have real influence on the process, rather than following the instructions.
But when it comes to Agile project management, a different challenge may arise, as it may render necessary a complete change in the mindset.
The company that is looking to undergo Agile transformation, should invest in all required training, so after passing it, management and all the company members feel much more confident regarding all the process changes.
The process of transformation is incremental. Agile techniques are implemented one by one and, if done smoothly, sometimes as soon as six months in the company may be ready to switch to Agile.
The Agile transformation gives the company its share of benefits: software ready for release every two to four weeks, overall product quality growth, drastically reduced development time in comparison with waterfall methodology.
Steps to follow in your Agile Transformation Journey
Below, let’s specify what exactly can help make the steps to Agile transformation in a smooth and easy way:
- Understanding of the Agile transformation needs on all company levels.
- Investment in Agile education and providing proper training for all company members starting from top management.
- Required management certification.
- Implementation of the Agile mindset into practice step by step. Starting small with a few teams and setting an example to others with successful implementation.
- Gradual implementation on a team level. Scrum principles should not be implemented all at once, rather it’s better done one by one. After each successfully implemented Scrum principle, the team may continue to implement the next one.
This is a short rundown of what can be done in an organization undergoing Agile transformation.
Agile Approach for Software Engineering Companies
Opposite to product-like companies, slightly different processes take place in outsourcing organizations. For each project inside an outsourcing company, there is a need to implement Agile from scratch.
Although developers and management are already taught and have experience working in an Agile environment, stakeholders for each new project should be taught separately, excluding rare cases when it is not needed.
Here the company can face some difficulties in understanding from the stakeholders the need of using the Agile methodology. Usually, they want to have gathered requirements specifications, detailed development plans, and expenses in advance.
Outsourcing companies need to demonstrate patience and be professional and persistent in Agile education, as usually, they have clients with projects which should fit a dynamically changing environment, meaning that requirements will change over time. Sometimes it takes time to guide clients through Agile education. In this case, it is important to demonstrate how it works in practice.
Usually, the simple truth is that almost all clients need Agile education, even those who say that they are familiar with Agile, as they have a slightly specific view on Agile processes.
The best advice is not to go all-in but try a few principles, observe the results and continue from there. Also, it is important to have qualified Agile coaches on site who will guide the team through all the difficulties during the Agile transformation journey.
Let’s consider a hypothetical situation.
A customer approaches a company with a formed vision regarding the functionality of this platform and he thinks that he will cover all marketer needs. He wants to have a detailed plan and date when the full version of the product would be completed.
But he doesn’t have clients who would use this platform yet. He only relies on his vision of the product. After the initial version of the product with basic functionality is done, it is demonstrated to potential customers and, expectedly, they have their own requirements regarding functionality.
So, all the previous plans regarding development need correction to fulfill real clients’ needs. For such a case, Agile fits perfectly as it is possible to plan when MVP will be ready. But then you have to go back to the market and comprehend what exactly is needed at that moment. And do it again and again in an iterative manner.
Our experience with Agile Transformation for teams and companies
Then there are companies that start out with Agile as the foundation on which they build their processes, define internal relationships and client interactions.
We at Symphony Solutions came a long way in our Agile transformation in over a decade of its existence, having built a strong Agile culture and accumulated vast experience over time to the point where we now provide Agile transformation services to other companies. To manage big complex solutions in a company, we successfully use the Scaled Agile Framework.
Thus, we have a chance to observe a completely different level of embracing the ways of Agile. A company where it stands as the core philosophy with all the processes revolving around it reaps great benefits in the way it’s able to deliver tangible results to the client fast. As an example of this, it took our engineering team just about two weeks to create a cross-platform web application for a Covid-19 testing center and roll it out onto the market.
Another example is an Agile transformation case study of Virtualstock, the company was able to expand engineering capabilities leveraging SAFe as a preferred framework, eventually optimizing the workflows to have a new product version ready for release every two weeks. Such astonishing results helped Virtualstock progress and strengthen its positions on the market, securing new partners, including the NHS in the UK, and winning the prestigious HCSA Procurement Technology Award 2019.
In these cases, the Agile approach helps to optimize the processes within the companies, accommodating effective cross-team collaboration, especially for distributed teams, allowing to quickly deliver a ready-to-use product to the client.
Companies that took advantage of our Agile transformation become able to accelerate time to market and expand teams, secure new prestigious clients, and grow revenue.
Summing up
Through their Agile journey, the companies positively transform in their very nature. They go through a sort of lifestyle change and become truly Agile Organizations.
It comes to show how this now becomes the norm, as opposed to how it used to be in the past when companies almost had to force Agile onto the client and explain all the benefits that come with it. And now, people are seeking and coming for it of their own accord. It’s safe to say, this is the future of Agile for organizations. We are flipping the mindsets of thousands, as we’re speaking
