the Cornerstone Agility Team | 2 Minute Read
Embracing Agility can be easy - in fact, many organizations start their Agile journey by just adopting a few Agile practices. However, true proficiency in Agile requires a lot more effort. In this week’s Tuesday Team Talks, we are going to discuss the hard truths about Agile Transformations, and how you can make sure that your transformation is moving in the right direction. We will talk about the importance of outcomes-based planning and how Scrum can be difficult to do really well. By understanding these challenges, you will be able to overcome them and achieve true agility!
Often, organizations claim to be Agile, but end up missing the key reasons for adopting Agile practices - accelerating business value delivery for their organization. If you want to take the next step in maturing your Agile organization, be sure to focus on the following:
- Outcomes over Outputs: To be successful with Agile, it is important to focus on the outcomes you want to achieve, rather than just the outputs of your team. This means that you need to have a clear understanding of what success looks like for your organization, and you need to align your Agile Transformation with that goal. Otherwise, you will likely find yourself just going through the motions without actually achieving anything.
- Quality over Quantity: Another hard truth about Agile is that quality trumps quantity every time. This means that you should never sacrifice quality to hit an Agile milestone. For example, if you are doing Agile software development, you should never ship a buggy piece of software just to meet your deadline. Doing so will only cause problems down the road and will ultimately hurt your Agile Transformation.
- Business Value over Features: One of the most common mistakes organizations make when Agile is to focus on delivering features instead of business value. This often happens because organizations misunderstand what Agile is all about. They think that Agile is all about delivering features quickly, but that is not the case. Agile is about delivering business value quickly. So, if you want to master Agile, you need to make sure that your team is focused on delivering business value, not just features.
- Customer Feedback over Productivity: Another common mistake organizations make is to focus on productivity over customer feedback. This often happens because agile teams are so focused on delivering value quickly that they forget to get feedback from customers. However, customer feedback is essential to Agile success. Without it, you will never know if you are actually delivering value to your customers.
- Iterations over Phases: One of the most important aspects of Agile is the concept of iterations. An iteration is a time-boxed period of time in which a team works on a set of features and then delivers them to the customer. This allows organizations to get feedback early and often, so they can course-correct as necessary. However, many organizations make the mistake of thinking that Agile is all about iterations. Agility is about much more than just iterations; it is transformation about delivering business value quickly and efficiently.
If you want to master Agile, you need to focus on the key Agile success factors. Only by doing so will you be able to achieve the Agile Transformation you desire.
Cornerstone Agility Inc. provides value based, principles-driven Transformation, Coaching, and Training Services built on the Cornerstone of Excellence! Together, we take your practice beyond theory to design your blueprint for success. Our promise to you is to maintain integrity through accuracy, honesty, and trustworthiness. Follow us on LinkedIn to see what our team is talking about today!
