TL;DR
It has been more than 20 years since Business Agility emerged as a promising alternative to the classic waterfall approach for software delivery. These days agility has many forms and has since proven to be essential for any type of business making it no longer an option. Those companies that have embraced agility continue to thrive while others have likely gone the way of the Dodo.
We have been with agile since the awkward beginning and early on even part of the resistance. It did not take long to realize the positive impact and the benefits over the clunkiness and waste of the waterfall approach. Here are some of the high-level elements that we suggest are worthy of a closer look:
- Business Agility is required for success regardless of your industry
- There are many significant Business Agility Benefits that are backed up by Interesting Stats Involving Business Agility from reputable sources.
- Within the agile universe there are many Agile variations, Agile Events, and Agile Team Types that are important for long term success.
- Our Business Agility Dojo Jumpstart along with Business Agility Maturity Model combine to accelerate learning and adoption of Flow Engineering method resulting in higher levels of maturity leading to greater proficiency, mastery, and results.
- Here you can find many of the Nimble Business Planning Terms that we use frequently.
Business Agility
Business Agility is the fine art of delivering small bits of customer valued functionality frequently. It comes with a great deal of emphasis on building high performance teams that are empowered to continually improve how they work and increase performance. This directly impacts how your business operates with respect to how value is delivered and how work gets done.
Success with Business Agility relies heavily on a close connection with customers through various channels. Combine that with frequent incremental delivery of value for a huge win-win situation. Fair to say that agile businesses can produce faster, better and cheaper because of increased focus on customers and continuous improvement.
Businesses that embrace agility also tend to be better equipped to respond to changes in the market or operating environment. Agility based performance enhancements trigger the delivery of incremental value. As such these benefits become real for customers more frequently which influences next steps. Less effort is lost to extensive planning or delivering all or part of a feature that no longer makes sense.
Agile ways of working have been around for a long time and have taken on many forms or frameworks. From the most basic form (Kanban) to more formal (Scrum) to scaled (Spotify, SAFe or FaST) there is a strong fit for any organization or team. Some are seen to be lightweight and freeform while others seem heavier and more rigid. We will work with you to propose the best fit for your situation then help drive success with it. We can lead the way with our Business Agility Dojo Jumpstart, which will also build the local expertise needed to run with it for long term sustained success.
Business Agility Benefits
Click through the following links to learn more about the various benefits of business agility:
| Business Agility Benefits | Description |
|---|---|
| Small incremental slices of functionality deliver frequently | With small incremental slices of functionality being delivered you gain the ability to react to customer feedback and production data. At the same time the customer gains access to that functionality to use and benefit from. |
| More ability to change direction without severe consequences | It is far easier to react to changes in priority or feedback that could influence a change in the plan. |
| Small autonomous teams | Teams that own how they work and are self-sufficient have fewer dependencies with can eliminate delays. |
| Continuous Improvement | A key ingredient that empowers teams to own how they work and drive the improvements that they are best equipped to understand and implement. |
| Organizational Learning Effect | Another powerful element of a learning organization that seeps into every corner of the business. A learning organization leverage a variety of learning opportunities to evolve. Learning Organizations tend to perform better as well as attract and retain strong talent. |
| Happier and more engaged people | Other methods are notorious for burning people out and destroying engagement. Frequent delivery cycles generate an enhanced sense of accomplishment. |
What follows are some of the high-level details of this approach.
Agile Variations
As we mentioned earlier there are many agile variations and it is very likely there are some that may be a better fit for you than others. Our deep experience with all of the most popular variants can help to find that best fit for you and lasting transformational success.
In the table below we cover many of the top agile variations. We know there are many others that may serve specific purposes. There is good diversity between these popular options, and we find these can be applied to any type of business.
| Agile Variants | Description | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Waterfall | The extreme opposite of anything to do with agile ways of working. Included here for comparison purposes. | – Driven by a visionary in an ivory tower – Long monolithic product delivery cycles – Extensive planning cycle to build a plan and cast it in stone – No wiggle room for change or adjusting the plan – get on the bus and stay on the bus – Skill silos prevail and create tension |
| Kanban | In its simplest form a dynamic Todo list featuring a backlog, work in progress and done. | – Easiest place to start – Less overhead with meetings and process – Ideal for teams that need to be more reactive |
| Scrum | Small teams working in regular short cycles to deliver value and continually improve. | – Small teams working in isolation – Regular cycles from a few days to a few weeks or longer – Industry standard |
| Fluid Adaptive Scaling Technology (FaST Agile 3.0) | A very interesting option for more nimble teams that need to move faster and be more dynamic than Scrum might allow. | – Very short delivery cycles typically 2.5 days. – Any sized teams – Dynamic teaming based on skills needed and availability. |
| Spotify Model | An interesting option that is more of a cultural approach than a formal framework. Many will tell you this is not really a thing and Spotify no longer uses it. Still, it contains several interesting concepts to borrow from that are worthy of a closer look. | – Organizational Structure for improved collaboration and autonomy – Continual Learning – Distributed decision making – Scales for multiple teams working on related deliverables |
| SAFe 6.0 | Generally used by large teams working on very complex projects involving multiple teams. Teams work within Release Trains which work within larger Solution Trains. | – Value Stream oriented – Industry standard for scaling agile |
Agile Events
Regardless of which agile variation you are using there are a number of agile events that need to occur on a regular basis. All may not be essential, but most are and not doing them well can hinder adoption and success.
| Agile Events | Description |
|---|---|
| Daily Stand-up | A standard feature of Scrum but may be less formal or optional with other approaches. A quick opportunity to check in on progress and unblock teammates. Often an optional Parking Lot to go deep with issues but release those not involved. |
| Sprint Planning | Plan the best work to be delivered during the next sprint based on what we know about the current situation, priorities and feedback. |
| Sprint Retrospective | Review as a team how the last sprint played out and explore ways to improve how the team works. |
| Backlog Refinement | Somewhat optional way to ensure that the backlog has plenty of work considered to be ready for a future sprint. |
| Sprint Demo | An exciting opportunity to demonstrate what was accomplished during the sprint. This may generate feedback or inspire changes in the plan for future work. |
| Big Room Planning | Often associated with SAFe this is part of a sprint long event. During this Release Train teams come together to coordinate and get on board with a plan that will take the next several sprints to deliver. |
Agile Team Types
It is important to be aware of the fact that there are many different types of agile teams. Using the right structure and type is just as important to agile success as the framework being used.
Exploring all the options in detail is too much for this page and better accomplished with a dedicated Agile Team Types page.
Interesting Stats Involving Business Agility
The follow table highlights some interest stats involving agility, agile adoptions and impact.
| Description | Stat | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Within recent years the adoption of agile practices has grown | +86% | businessmap.io |
| Agile adoptions are attributed with increasing customer satisfaction | +30% | mckinsey.com |
| Agile methods have increased employee engagement | +30% | mckinsey.com |
| Impact of agile approaches had improving operational performance | +50% | mckinsey.com |
| Attempted agile adoptions fail to deliver results on time | 65% | theregister.com |
| Agile adoptions fail due to inconsistencies in process | 46% | parabol.co |
| Agile adoption failures due to cultural clashes | 43% | parabol.co |
| Attempted agile adoptions fail due to resistance to change | 42% | parabol.co |
| Agile oriented projects success rate over waterfall methods | +13% | zippia.com |
Business Agility Maturity Levels
NRM can help to get you either up and running with Business Agility or otherwise reach higher levels of maturity for amplified success. Our Business Agility Dojo Jumpstart meets you where you are in this journey and gets you moving forward with modern Business Agility. Beyond that though we have additional guidance on how you can make progress toward higher levels within the Business Agility Maturity Model. This can serve as inspiration and something that you can pursue on your own or in parallel for even more rapid results.
The maturity level of your company regarding the Business Agility can be summed up as follows:
Additional links for more information:
- Business Agility – Scaled Agile Framework
- Business Agility: What Is It & Why Is It Important? – ProjectManager
- Agile Alliance
- Agility Health Radar
- Comparative Agility
- Fluid Adaptive Scaling Technology (FAST 3.0)
- RE-SA-17th-Annual-State-Of-Agile-Report a geeky thing showing the most recent state of agile practices.