Looking to adopt Agile methodology at your organization? Wondering what it takes to become a truly Agile organization? Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can empower your organization to grow, change, and buy into an Agile methodology.
Streamlining the Process of Becoming an Agile Organization
One of the most important parts of streamlining the process of becoming an Agile organization is education. While you transition to this new development model, it’s important to educate all stakeholders who will be affected by the transition and help them understand the principles of your chosen framework, key concepts and principles, and the reasons that implementing an Agile framework is worth it.
But this can be difficult if you’re not participating in a guided transition, assisted by a firm like Vana Solutions. It can be overwhelming for stakeholders to learn all of the concepts required for an Agile methodology.
Scrum, for example, involves learning about sets of events, roles, and artifacts that guide the delivery process. But without the proper guidance, your team members will be left alone to determine how to keep notes related to events, how to capture requirements for Scrum with traceability, and how to track what has been delivered.
They must also think about how to ensure action items don’t fall off of the radar, how to manage the process if a story is tested and fails, when to perform User Acceptance Testing, and so on.
This is why a guided transition is so important. At Vana Solutions, we have the processes, templates, and tools that your business needs to hit the ground running. With our unique approach to Agile transitioning, called epicAgileTM, you can streamline the process of initial adoption and quickly settle into a daily routine that works for your team members.
What It Takes at the Macro Level (Business-Wide)
Here are a few of the attributes of businesses that can successfully transform into Agile organizations.
- Vision & fortitude – You must focus on the long-term and be patient. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and you must be prepared for this.
- Trust & transparency – You have to “walk the walk” and create an environment of true trust, transparency, and collaboration.
- Education – Everyone at every level of the organization must be educated about the benefits of the Agile methodology, and why you’re making this change.
- A plan for turnover – Not everyone will make the transition. You need to prepare for this – and have a plan to replace team members who wash out.
- A detailed plan – You should have a detailed plan about which Agile methodology you’re adopting, such as Scrum or Kanban. Focus on a single methodology from the beginning.
- Courage to take a risk – There will be good and bad days. Have the courage to take risks and make mistakes. If you stick to your plan, you will succeed.
What It Takes at The Micro Level (Team-Wide)
You should implement all of the above “macro” strategies tactically on a team-by-team basis. In addition, your teams should:
- Understand the end goal – Make sure all of your team members know why you’re implementing Agile methods and know about the end goal for your organization so that they can focus on the big picture.
- Have defined roles – Make sure to re-assess and redefine roles in each team as you adopt Agile, to ensure that there is no confusion.
- Be empowered to self-organize – Don’t micromanage. Provide your teams with the power to self-organize and implement changes on their own.
- Be ready to re-evaluate the results – Encourage transparency and openness and listen to how your teams are feeling and ensure they are consistently evaluating and re-evaluating their results.
Know What It Takes to Become Agile – It’s Worth It!
The transition to becoming an Agile organization isn’t easy, but it’s worth your time and money. For the best results, your business must adopt the above micro and macro strategies and work with an experienced transition provider.
Need help? Turning a large ship around takes time, so minimize the learning curve, mitigate frustration, and ensure that your project goes off without a hitch. Contact our team members right away!
At Vana Solutions, we offer Agile coaching and training that can help you speed up the transition and ensure that your business moves to an Agile model successfully. Get in touch now to schedule a consultation with our expert Agile consultants.
