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Agile benefits

The benefits of being agile include:

• lightening your mental load;
• embracing and managing change;
• delivering value early;
• gaining a competitive edge;
• communicating effectively;
• maintaining workflow and focus;
• making good decisions rapidly;
• enabling personal growth and skills.

Problems to solve

If you can identify with any of these problems, then agile tools and thinking can help you to find a way through to a solution:

• lack of visibility and clarity;
• delays due to blocks and bottlenecks;
• too much work or nothing to do;
• moving goalposts and scope creep;
• uncertainty of a way forward;
• starting projects but not finishing them;
• running late and over budget;
• poor communication/collaborative working;
• managing a changing environment;
• procrastination and low morale.

Agile survey

Since 2011 I have been working with small and medium-sized businesses to adopt agile and lean practices into their business strategies and product development practices. These businesses were surveyed to identify the benefits of their adoption of agile.

The survey confirmed the benefits of adoption with agile businesses, reporting:

• a more flexible approach to business;
• improved responsiveness through improved workflow;
• improved communications and team cohesion;
• improved efficiency in general;
• better customer service and satisfaction;
• improved times to market;
• better product testing.

All participants reported enthusiastically from their experiences of implementing agile. Highlights of what was considered to work especially well included testing, process simplification and the board.

Companies also reported better team morale, better time efficiency due to the time management tool and an improved responsiveness to ‘mission creep’ (Oxford Innovation Services Ltd, 2012).

The survey also identified improved quality, focus and change management through the adoption of agile methods. Many of the businesses reported agile moving into other areas of the business beyond product development, such as strategy, human resources (HR), marketing and sales.

The project was extended in 2012 to work with businesses from a diverse variety of sectors to support the evolvement of agile practices for their use. Following the success of their adoption, the methods have continued to adapt and evolve to be suitable for most business professionals.

Figure 2.1 Organisational agility

Source: Project Management Institute (2012)

Agile is a flexible working structure that enables you to visualise your workflow in real time to improve:

• responsiveness;
• communications;
• productivity;
• motivation;
• resource management;
• quality of work;
• planning and prioritisation;
• focus.

‘“Agile on the Beach 2014” asked conference attendees if being agile made them happy. 95 per cent said yes!’

‘AGILE ON THE BEACH 2014’ CONFERENCE SURVEY RESULTS