Agile Adoption and the Benefits of Agile Transformation
By Roy Schilling
Abstract
Agile transformations can be expensive - very expensive - and will cause significant disruption to an organization. So, you have to ask, why would companies want to do this?
While there are many benefits to going to Agile, organizations often choose the wrong goals, or don't go far enough to realize those benefits, usually failing (at some level) or at least becoming disillusioned and falling back on familiar methods.
Choosing the wrong reasons, such as “everyone else is doing it,” dooms an organization to failure. There is no purpose to rally behind and no measurement of success to indicate that it’s actually working. It’s important, therefore, to choose the right goals in order to receive a real return on a transformation effort.
Peter Drucker famously said, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” Many organizations are shifting toward this philosophy and away from the drive solely to increase shareholder value.
Even Jack Welch, who was famous for his drive toward shareholder value, later called it “the world’s dumbest idea” and further states that “Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy. Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”
Given this shift toward a customer-centric focus, many organizations are using Agile as a mechanism to realign their very foundations in order to accomplish this goal. Agile at its core focuses on customer results, employee engagement and building high quality products that customers actually want.
This white paper will outline ten benefits being realized though an Agile transformation.
About the Author:
For over 15 years, Roy has been working with organizations to build high performing teams and organizations using Agile and Lean methodologies. Roy is an experienced Agile coach and trainer with strong technical and leadership qualifications with more than 30 years of experience in strategic planning, team development, project and product management and systems engineering strategies. Roy has a proven ability to successfully analyze an organization’s critical issues, identifying deficiencies and opportunities, and develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for enhancing competitiveness and effectiveness. Roy has worked in numerous industries including Government, Financial Services, Insurance, and Manufacturing.
