Breaking Ground on Agile Finance
A Q+A with Steve Milligan
It’s rare to hear “finance” and “groundbreaking” mentioned in the same sentence, but ICAgile Authorized Instructor Steve Milligan is changing that.
Steve is among a small group of pioneers working to bring the agile movement — borne from the discipline of software development — to the people that manage our money. As part of ICAgile’s founding track committee for Agile Finance, Steve actively contributed to creating the global accreditation standards for top-quality training in the field. He then went on to bring those Learning Outcomes to life, working with training organization Agilious to develop the first accredited Agile Finance course in the United States. His work can be seen as part of a larger movement of trailblazers advancing the cause of Business Agility by advocating for critical business enablement teams to join organizations in their journey to sustainable organizational transformation.
We asked Steve a few questions about this critical work below!
What came first: agile, or finance?
In my experience, agility has always been an important element of Financial Operations. As an Audit Manager, I was accountable for the completion of audit plans, which were executed by teams of experts with differing backgrounds. This required creating teams capable of completing the required tasks while also maintaining the capability to adjust and respond to initial findings. As a Controller, I was accountable for multiple teams performing cash processing, account reconciliation and adjustments, payroll, reporting and budgeting, in multiple locations. Micromanagement was out of the question! The only alternative was to empower teams to get the work done and ensure that everyone understood our objectives and key measurements. Development teams that understood financial measures were more capable of making decisions regarding product value and worked better with financial operations to facilitate movement of resources in response to change.
For many, Agile still means a software development methodology. How do those concepts relate to Finance?
According to Webster, Agile is an adjective that means, “marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace” or “having a quick resourceful and adaptable character.” Many associate the word agile with software development. Financial agility, however, is more closely related to the dictionary definition. The goal is to create an environment where resources flow seamlessly to the most valuable objectives while minimizing bureaucratic constraints.
Why is Agile Finance important today?
Many organizations have committed a great deal of time and resources to achieve agile transformation. If that transformation is limited to development teams the organization will not achieve the greatest results possible from their efforts. To achieve complete business agility, organizations must breakdown silos and ensure the whole organization operates as an interactive network.
What was it like to be a founding member of ICAgile’s Agile Finance Track committee?
Being a founding member of ICAgile’s Agile Finance track was a fantastic opportunity and a truly rewarding experience. The founders represented a diverse pool of talent which led to interesting discussion and debate. I learned a great deal from my teammates during the process of developing the learning objectives for this course. One of the most important things I learned was that we are working with a very active area of investigation and that agile finance will likely evolve rapidly as a component of overall business agility.
Next, you went on to develop one of the first accredited training courses in Agile Finance. What was your approach to designing that learning experience?
We reviewed ICAgile’s Learning Outcomes and created exercises and content to deliver them. Our goal was to create a highly interactive experience that ensured coverage of participant concerns. Personal experience and examples are emphasized to illustrate key concepts. The content was then tested with volunteers and used in presentations to validate their effectiveness and refine their content. Input was solicited from a wide variety of interested parties and their input was used to further refine the course.
Why did you choose to accredit your course for ICAgile’s Agile Finance certification?
ICAgile has established thought leadership in the business agility domain — this was an easy choice! The Agile Finance course and certification will add to the robust suite of classes that comprise the Business Agility learning path.
Considering you helped write the Learning Outcomes, was getting the course accredited relatively easy?
Absolutely not — but in a very good way! My accreditation session started at 6PM and ended after 10:30 PM. I was very pleased because we were able to discuss the Learning Outcomes and how they would be achieved in detail. As a result, I was able to make some modifications that will result in a better experience for participants.
Click through to learn more about ICAgile’s Agile Finance Learning Outcomes and to check out Agilious’ upcoming Agile Finance classes in Virginia and Southern California!
