Being Agile and deriving the business outcomes means you need to have a thriving top-to-bottom and end-to-end Agile landscape.
—Mario Moreira
Agile has been in the limelight for well over a dozen years. Agile has secured its place within the software development community and now it is spreading into many other areas of business where the incremental nature and promise of better business outcomes are very tantalizing. Many people are realizing that a more iterative approach allows them the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of customers and the continuous churning of the marketplace. Others would like to apply Agile because they are hearing about it from all corners of their professional life and think maybe its time to get on the bandwagon. For many reasons, there are real benefits that can be derived from applying Agile.
As simple as it may seem, to establish the Agile landscape and reap the positive business outcomes requires a combination of Agile processes, roles, and the all-important culture. For Agile to work well, all levels of the enterprise must play their part in the Agile journey and toward the delivery of customer value. This journey includes having Agile culture and practices applied at all levels.
Agile Pit Stop
To reap positive business outcomes requires a combination of Agile processes, roles, and the all-important culture.
Finally, establishing Agile implies a strong cultural element that focuses on how individuals and organizations must behave and operate to truly focus on a customer-value-driven approach. To be specific, Agile processes, practices, and techniques and those playing the roles must operate within an Agile cultural context and that context must exist at all levels of an enterprise.
Landscape of the Agile Galaxy
As we look across your enterprise, it is important to establish a landscape to better view where Agile is being applied. I term this landscape the “Agile galaxy” (see Figure 4-1). It is the landscape where all Agile processes, roles, and culture live that have a focus on delivering customer value. It helps us understand where Agile is adopted.
Figure 4-1. Agile galaxy: Landscape for your Agile culture and practices
The Agile galaxy has a vertical view titled the hierarchical axis, where the executives are at the top and the teams are at the bottom (although this can be reversed). It also has a horizontal view titled the delivery axis that illustrates the end-to-end flow of work from the moment an idea is recorded to the point where it is released and then reflected upon. The delivery axis is the channel by which the enterprise is focused on delivering customer value.
The purpose of establishing your own Agile-galaxy construct is for you to understand where along both the delivery and hierarchical axis you have Agile-related elements (such as concepts, mindset, practices, processes, and techniques) being applied and where in relation to this landscape they are occurring. Where is Agile primarily being implemented? What Agile practices are being applied? Where do we see an Agile culture and the behaviors being adopted?
Whether you are in the midst of your Agile transformation or you are looking to begin the journey, it is beneficial to have a living Agile galaxy related to your enterprise. This will help you understand where Agile is occurring and where you need to focus next. It is very reasonable to approach an Agile transformation in an incremental manner. For each increment, you should reflect on what practices are being applied, what roles are applying it, and the current state of the culture from an Agile perspective. You may consider it a heat map of where Agile is occurring. As you plan the next increment, you can use this as input on where you want to go next. Let’s more fully explore your Agile galaxy.
Holistic Process View of an Agile Galaxy
The goal of building your Agile galaxy is having Agile applied at all levels with a focus of delivering customer value. However, what tends to be common is a propensity to initiate Agile at the team level. It is not surprising that Agile has lived through its first dozen years with a more-or-less team focus. The reasons are severalfold.
The evolution of many of the early and current Agile processes, practices, and techniques are primarily focused on the team level. There are few Agile elements focused on the beginning of the delivery axis (such as recording and refining ideas). There is less focus on the Agile culture regarding behaviors and mindset. Many Agile coaches tend to be experienced mostly at the team level with few who have substantial experience at the enterprise level. It is also much easier for management to ask the team to make the change to Agile without themselves committing to the Agile change.
Agile Pit Stop
Many organizations still have a team-centric view of Agile.
Because of these reasons, it is not uncommon to primarily see Agile practices occurring in the bottom right corner of the Agile galaxy. Because of this team-centric view of Agile, companies have Agile elements in action at the team level, and they have fewer elements as they move up along the hierarchical axis toward middle management, then senior leadership, and finally toward the beginning of the delivery axis in valuing ideas.
Using the Agile-galaxy context, Figure 4-2 illustrates what a team-centric implementation of Agile might look like. Each Agile element represents an Agile process, practice, or technique. A dot is not meant to be specific to a particular Agile element, but to illustrate where Agile elements most commonly live in team-centric Agile implementation.
Figure 4-2. Where Agile elements live in a team-centric implementation of Agile
It will be very challenging for teams to operate in an Agile manner when the more senior level of the organization is not. If management along the hierarchical axis and recording and refining ideas along the delivery axis are applying a big-batch view of the work, it can be hard for teams to apply an incremental and adaptive view of the work. Also, if the enterprise operates with an annual budget cycle where ideas are recorded and parsed once a year, it can be very hard for a team to adapt to customer needs and marketplace when new ideas are coming in regularly.
Agile Pit Stop
Having one part of the enterprise work on an annual scale while another works on an iterative and incremental scale creates a pace difference that causes great tension within the system, inhibiting adaptability and innovation.
A more holistic and healthy Agile galaxy is where an enterprise has Agile elements occurring throughout the galaxy, both on the delivery axis and the hierarchical axis. This way the concepts, mindset, practices, processes, and techniques being applied are Agile-related, and the company does not experience the tension of the pace difference when one part of the enterprise runs as Agile and the other part runs as traditional.
A more holistic and healthy Agile galaxy has a reasonable application of Agile elements in all quadrants of the galaxy. Figure 4-3 illustrates this Agile galaxy. Compare it to Figure 4-2, which illustrates a team-centric Agile galaxy. Notice how there are more Agile elements in the upper part of the hierarchical axis and more elements in the front part of the delivery axis.
Figure 4-3. Holistic and healthy Agile galaxy of Agile elements
While newer processes and practices are being established beyond the team level, I contend that there needs to be a fundamental shift toward approaching Agile in order for companies to take the most advantage of the business outcomes it can bring.
Holistic Roles of the Agile Galaxy
Similar to the Agile process elements, a more holistic and healthy Agile galaxy is where all members of an enterprise plays their role within an Agile context. This means that the roles that are both along the delivery axis and the hierarchical axis are contributing to the delivery of customer value. Those playing the roles would apply the Agile concepts, mindset, processes, practices, and techniques.
Because of the team-centric view of Agile in many companies, those playing the team-level roles have engaged in applying Agile concepts, processes, and practices. However, levels of management and operational roles (HR, finance, marketing, and so on) within an enterprise along both the vertical and horizontal axis tend to play a lesser role in Agile and the incremental and customer value-driven focus that is needed.
Figure 4-4 illustrates what a team-centric-role implementation of Agile might look like. Each dot represents a person within the enterprise that is playing his or her role in an Agile manner.
Figure 4-4. Agile roles that live in a team-centric implementation of Agile
Interestingly enough, in some enterprises, there is often a CEO or head of engineering that is pro-Agile, as illustrated in Figure 4-4 (the two dots toward the top of the hierarchy). However, in those same organizations, there is often little or no buy-in of Agile at the middle-management level. Having some roles engaged in Agile while others engaged in a more traditional or command and control manner creates tension regarding ownership and pace of work.
Agile Pit Stop
Interestingly, there is often a CEO or head of engineering as pro-Agile while there is little or no Agile buy-in at the middle-management level.
A more holistic and healthy Agile galaxy has people in all quadrants of the galaxy who have adapted their roles to apply Agile with a focus on delivering customer value. Figure 4-5 illustrates the holistic and healthy Agile galaxy so that it can be compared to Figure 4-4, which illustrates a team-centric Agile galaxy.
Figure 4-5. Holistic and healthy Agile galaxy where all roles are aligned with Agile
Organizational functions must all play a role in transforming to Agile. Each role or function must be structured such that they can readily adapt to the changing needs of customers and conditions of the marketplace. To understand the expectations of what roles and responsibilities would look like within an Agile landscape, please visit Chapter 8.
What Does Your Agile Galaxy Look Like?
When I explore the concept of the Agile galaxy with colleagues, I often witness “a-ha” moments. For so long now, Agile has been implemented at the team level that for some it is a new revelation when they look above their current Agile horizon and realize there is more territory to cover. Roles at all levels in the enterprise must play their part in the creation of customer value. The need to have Agile processes, practices, and techniques for all levels in the enterprise is becoming apparent to many.
The good news is many people are starting to make the connection that it does take an enterprise to establish an effective Agile galaxy focused on delivering value to the customer. Hopefully, this book helps you in that journey to evolve your current Agile implementation toward the enterprise level, cultural level, and the customer-driven level where it needs to be.
For additional material, I suggest the following: