20 June 2023
THREE KEY SUCCESS FACTORS FOR DISTRIBUTED AGILE DELIVERY
To succeed in global economy, companies need to develop adaptable and resilient workforce. A distributed workforce can act as a facilitator.
In today's business market, Agile principles are essential for firms looking to establish a people-centric organization that can quickly respond to new opportunities, challenges and the evolving consumer behaviour. An environment that is dynamic and flexible is more likely to allow employees to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, as well meeting the needs of their customers and delivering continuous value. An agile culture can be embedded in four ways, which we discuss in this blog.
Change is driven by culture, and Agile methodologies are too often implemented without considering this intangible but essential aspect of change. Cultural change is difficult to comprehend and implement in practice and is often postponed or ignored. That’s why starting an agile transformation with a smaller scope, e.g. piloting in specific projects or areas, will help companies better understand their own strengths and weaknesses on their way to scaling.
According to the Annual State of Agile Report 20221, 41 percent of transformed organizations lack leadership support, resulting in cultural clashes, loosened vision and a workplace that the employees perceive as unsafe. To achieve the best results, the first and most important priority should be to secure the buy-in and ongoing support of C-level management such as the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer, who already have agile transformation experience.
Additionally, too many organizations suffer technological bottlenecks after the transformation, which undermines cultural change. The daily business infrastructure must be flexible enough to support improvements, as it impacts decision making and can slow a company’s response to market changes. To avoid falling into that trap, firms should create an environment that encourages innovation, engages people, and creates technologies that enable them to make decisions and model dynamically. Instead of ‘playing safe’, let people experiment.
Every change needs a plan and clear procedures. However, most firms expect the needed mindset shift to come automatically with the organizational transformation. To sustain a new culture, a company needs a radical redesign of their workforce arrangements which takes into consideration the time, effort, and psychological aspects involved. That’s why cultural transformation should be made transparent and be treated as a project with the usual planning and tracking. A cultural change program should always remain in focus and never become deprioritized for the benefit of business deliverables.
Introducing Agile frameworks to a firm’s employees is easy to implement, however, it doesn’t result in real change, let alone continuous cultural transformation. To ensure that any changes to your organizational structure are long-lasting, it is necessary to have Agile deeply rooted within your firm. Embedding an agile culture within an organization is a continuous process in which Agile experts identify potential areas for improvement and implement change, with the unwavering support from the leadership team.
Every company is unique and Agile implementations require close collaboration with Agile experts. Capco’s Agile services partner with organizations through every step of their Agile journey, from determining the organizational readiness to scaling and accelerating the transformation. Contact us to discuss how we can help your firm establish, improve, or scale Agile and achieve your transformational goals.
1 16th Annual State of Agile Report digital.ai. https://digital.ai/resource-center/analyst-reports/state-of-Agile-report/
