by the Cornerstone Agility Team | 2 Minute Read
Infrastructure plays a vital role in ensuring the smooth operation of an organization's IT systems. Infrastructure development differs from traditional software development in that it must consider the physical components that make up an organization's IT systems. In today's fast-paced, ever-changing business landscape, it is more important than ever for Infrastructure Teams to be able to adapt and deliver Infrastructure Services quickly, with quality, and without introducing unnecessary risk.
To best adapt and serve their Customers, Infrastructure Teams need the ability to prioritize their work, understand their workloads, and plan for both strategic and operational goals. They can use Agile practices to improve their ability to deliver Infrastructure Services effectively and efficiently. Applying Agility within Infrastructure doesn’t necessarily mean applying an Agile framework within Infrastructure – it simply means looking for adaptable ways to maintain operations while planning and building for the future. Finding the right solution can be challenging and must be customized to the way Infrastructure Teams perform work, and the budget that’s available.
Agility enables Infrastructure Teams to make faster decisions based on a better understanding of stakeholder requirements and customer pain points. Agile also provides an opportunity for teams to focus on delivering value—not just completing tasks.
Agile Practices Enable...
- Prioritizing work to better understand which Customer requests need to be addressed first (what’s the burning platform?).
- Understanding workloads through Customer engagement, feedback loops, and adaptability based on demand.
- Planning for both strategic and operational goals to ensure growth and maintenance are balanced for current and future Customer success.
- Sequencing work visually to see what needs to be done next, who is needed, and the timeline for delivery.
- Building roadmaps that flow from purchasing through installation with key delivery milestones:
- Incremental delivery toward long-term, sustained goals.
Recommend Agile Practices
- Backlog maintenance to visualize and prioritize work.
- Kanban Board creation to articulate the flow of work from request to completion.
- Iterative planning cycles to balance strategic and operational goals while analyzing possible trade-offs based on Customer needs and IT system capabilities.
- Roadmap visualization through tool of choice to demonstrate direction and progress toward goals.
Agility in Infrastructure Create Opportunites to...
- Focus on value to the Customer first.
- Understand what the Customer is trying to achieve.
- Align Infrastructure work to Customer goals.
- Build and deliver solutions in small, iterative steps.
- Receive feedback from the Customer along the way.
- Adjust plans based on learnings and feedback.
