Agile Transformation, strange bedfellows?

TL;DR

Agile fits well within the business transformation narrative, agile transformation is a means not an end. The challenge for leaders is to be able to articulate vision and direction in such a way that agile makes practical sense and is not confused with dogma.

A logical place to start is at the Board level. Developing transparency, rapid feedback loops, reflection and continuous improvement from the Board will help. Modelling agile ways of working at the Board level and adapting behaviours towards a constant purpose that will re-invent your organisation is what (I believe) constitutes an Agile Transformation.

Boring Explanation

Agile is an adjective therefore describing a transformation as agile makes perfect sense. However when the term is used today most people are referring, not to the adjective, but using agile as a mass noun. This is important because one of the characteristics of a mass noun is that they can’t be counted or quantified in the traditional manner. We are, therefore, obfuscing meaning with the use of this term, so need to work harder on the explanation.

It is clear that the adoption of agile across an enterprise may bring deep changes to the way of working and even the culture of the enterprise, but is it transformation?

It is also clear that many modern transformations are associated with two things: the adoption of new digital technologies; and the transition to a more collaborative, team-based way of working. Both of these changes may be enhanced by adoption of agile practices. Therefore the term is relevant, and may even be useful.

The rest of this article is available at martinchesbrough.net

Excerpts below:

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Staying with the historical perspective for a moment, Carlota Perez’s work on Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital does a great job of explaining why the early part of the 21st century is dominated by a need for organisations to transform and adapt to new economic realities.

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A more comprehensive research program has been undertaken over the past 7 years by the DevOps community (under various commercial relationships with Puppet Labs, Google, etc). This has been published in a book, Accelerate, and is available in various forms. Perhaps this is the one thing your Board needs to read before they embark on an Agile Transformation?

If reading the whole book is too much for your Board perhaps just this ACM article titled, “DevOps Phenomenon: an executive crash course”, might help.

Let’s put it another way …. every Board has traditionally dealt with financial matters like approving the annual budget. In order to do that they have needed to know the basics of financial reporting and budgetting. They need to know enough about finance to ask pertinent questions to understand what is going in within the companies they direct.

How about we ask the Board of every 21st century company to understand the DORA diagram above? Enough to be able to ask pertinent questions around the company operations and be well enough informed to drive Agile Transformation?