Successful Delivery using Agile in the Business Environment

Building an Agile Business Part#2:

Agile concepts and processes have revolutionised the digital business landscape, enabling organisations to adapt quickly to changing market demands and deliver value to customers faster.

In the second part of this mini-series, we look at the way that Agile concepts and processes have revolutionised the digital business landscape, enabling organisations to adapt quickly to changing market demands, delivery products and services that remain relevant and aligned to business vision, faster and more efficiency.

Introduction

The Agile approach emphasises collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement, enabling teams to deliver products and services that meet customer needs more effectively.

In the digital business world, where the pace of change is rapid, Agile concepts and processes are particularly well-suited to support innovation and drive business growth. By using Agile methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, and Lean, organisations can streamline their processes, increase productivity, and reduce time-to-market. They can also improve collaboration between different teams and departments, allowing for a more integrated approach to delivering digital products and services.

In this article, we will explore how Agile processes and tooling can help drive success in both the implementation and change management delivery of business operations, strategy and vision.

Agile Processes

Agile processes are characterised by their focus on iterative and incremental delivery, with frequent releases of working products or ‘good-enough’ outputs. With collaboration between stakeholders at the heart, Agile looks to emphasise flexibility and adaptability, enabling teams to respond quickly to changes in requirements or the business environment. By leveraging Agile processes, organisations can achieve :

1. Faster Delivery: Enable teams to deliver working products or outputs of sufficient quality quicker, reducing the time to market and improving customer satisfaction.
2. Improved Collaboration: Collaboration between stakeholders, enabling teams to work together more effectively and align their efforts with the organisation’s strategic objectives.
3. Increased Flexibility: flexibility and adaptability, enabling teams to respond quickly to changes in requirements or the business environment.
4. Greater Transparency: Transparency, enabling stakeholders to have visibility into the progress of the project and make informed decisions based on that information.

By adopting Agile processes, organisations can look to realise these benefits and improve chances of success in the delivery of business change.

Agile Tooling

Agile tooling can help support delivery and reduce complexity in delivery. A number of options exist, including project management software, collaboration tools, and product development tools, among others. By leveraging Agile tooling, organisations can Improved Efficiency, enable Greater Visibility, Enhanced Collaboration and Increased Quality.

These tools can automate many of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks involved in the management process, provide visibility into the progress of the project or delivery, and facilitate collaboration between team members and stakeholders.

There are many guides and “Best of’s” out there, Wikipedia has a fairly complete list . Selection and deployment are often a matter of choice, and availability. Names you will often hear include Jira and Azure DevOps, but there are many options available, both online as SaaS services or as local deploy. Balancing Security, Collaboration and availability will often figure in your selection.

Processes and Methodologies

At the heart of Agile delivery is the framework or methodology that guides the team an drives consistency and quality. To effectively implement an Agile approach, organisations can adopt various different Agile methodologies, such as Scrum, Kanban, or Lean. Each methodology has its unique characteristics, but all share the same underlying principles of flexibility, collaboration, and iterative development.

Scrum is one of the most popular Agile methodologies, emphasising self-organising teams, regular meetings, and iterative development cycles. Kanban is another Agile methodology that focuses on visualising work, limiting work in progress, and optimising flow. Lean is an Agile methodology that emphasises the elimination of waste and the maximisation of customer value.

Agile in Practice

To illustrate how Agile processes and tooling can help drive success in the implementation and change management delivery of business strategy and vision, we can reflect on the following scenarios:

• Company XYZ is developing a new product to enter a new market. The company has a clear strategic vision for the product, but the market is highly competitive, and customer requirements are constantly evolving. The company decides to adopt Agile processes and tooling to manage the delivery process and deliver the “outputs” to market quickly and efficiently.
• The company forms a cross-functional team consisting of Subject Matter Experts, designers, and product managers. The team uses Agile processes, such as Scrum or Kanban, to manage the delivery process or products every few weeks.
• As the project process progresses, the team collaborates with stakeholders, such as customers, product owners and marketing teams, to ensure that the product/output meets their requirements and aligns with the organisation’s strategic vision. The team also uses Agile engineering practices, such as continuous delivery and testing, to ensure that the product is of high quality.

By adopting this approach, our Company XYZ is able to progress collaboratively, building on success and continuous feedback to deliver the product to market quickly and efficiently, using customer feedback and market trends. The project team is also able to maintain flexibility and adaptability in the face of changing market conditions, ensuring that the product remains competitive and aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives.

Where Agile has been Applied

Agile methodologies have been successfully implemented in a wide range of non-technical/non-software development projects across a range of industries. Here are a few examples of where it has been implemented successfully:

1. Construction: Skanska, one of the world’s leading construction companies, has adopted Agile methodologies to improve project management, communication, and collaboration. By applying Lean Construction and Scrum, Skanska has achieved faster delivery times, reduced waste, and improved quality.
2. Marketing: HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing, sales, and CRM software company, has adopted Agile methodologies to improve marketing campaign management, content creation, and customer engagement. By applying Agile Marketing and Scrum, HubSpot has achieved more effective campaigns, better customer engagement, and higher ROI.
3. Healthcare: Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical centre, has adopted Agile methodologies to improve patient care, clinical processes, and medical research. By applying Lean Healthcare and Scrum, Mayo Clinic has achieved better patient outcomes, improved efficiency, and increased collaboration between healthcare providers.
4. Education: Colorado State University (CSU) has adopted Agile methodologies to improve curriculum development, student engagement, and academic research. By applying Agile Education and Scrum, CSU has achieved more effective teaching, better student outcomes, and improved academic research
5. Manufacturing: Toyota, a leading automobile manufacturer, has adopted Agile methodologies to improve product development, supply chain management, and quality control. By applying Lean Manufacturing and Scrum, Toyota has achieved faster time-to-market, improved quality, and better supply chain management.

These examples help demonstrate the opportunity that exists for organisations by highlighting the successful adoption across a wide range of industries and projects beyond software development.

Summary

Agile can be associated with risks around a lack of documentation and a perceived lack of control, and clearly Agile methodologies may not be appropriate for all projects or organisations. However, in the right circumstances it can accelerate and drive change, quality and success in both change and operational delivery.

Adoption is through structured delivery, that includes:

• Define the Business Strategy and Vision: Define the organisation’s business strategy and vision, ensuring that it is aligned with the organisation’s goals and objectives.
• Adopt Agile Processes: Select, Adapt and Adopt your Agile process/Methodology, eg Scrum, Kanban or Lean, to manage the delivery process and drive regular product releases every few weeks.
• Leverage Agile Tooling: Leverage tooling, such as project management software and collaboration tools, to support the process and improve efficiency.
• Collaborate with Stakeholders: Collaborate with stakeholders, such as customers and marketing teams, to ensure that the product or outputs meet their requirements and aligns with the organisation’s strategic vision.
• Use Agile Engineering Practices: Use Agile engineering practices, such as continuous integration and automated testing, to ensure that the product is of high quality.

Adopting an Agile approach can help drive and ensure success in delivering both business operations and strategic change. Agile methodologies emphasise flexibility, adaptability, collaboration, and iterative delivery, enabling organisations to respond quickly to changes in requirements or the business environment. To effectively implement an Agile approach, organisations can adopt (and adapt) one of the various Agile methodologies, leveraging one of the many tools and technologies, leading to an improved efficiency, reduced time to market, while ensuring efforts remain aligned to the organisation’s strategic objectives.

An Agile Approach to delivery in Business

This article is part of a 4 part mini-series, designed to support senior managers, business leaders and executive’s looking to accelerate their business growth, and provide better predictability to outcomes and delivery.

The other articles are available via our Blog Home page or through the links below.

1. The Benefits of implementing Agile in your Organisation.
2. Successful Delivery using Agile in the Business Environment
3. Implementing Agile ways of working in a Business Operational Environment.
4. Organising your business to successfully implement Agile Ways of Working

References

There are many useful publications and materials on this subject. We include a number below, some of which we have used to provide examples and conclusions. We encourage you to explore this material as it can help set context or provide additional information. All rights reserved, All Trademarks Acknowledged, and all original content referenced is owned by the third parties identified.

1. “The Agile Manifesto.” Agilemanifesto.org, http://agilemanifesto.org/.
2. “What Is Agile Methodology?” Smartsheet, https://www.smartsheet.com/agile-methodology.
3. “Agile for Manufacturing: From Waste Reduction to Quality Improvement.” ASQ, https://asq.org/quality-resources/agile-manufacturing.
4. “Agile Healthcare Delivery: Kaiser Permanente’s Experience.” Healthcare IT News, https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/agile-health Lean Construction Institute. (2021). Lean Construction. https://www.leanconstruction.org/what-is-lean-construction/
5. Agile Marketing. (2021). Agile Marketing. https://www.agilemarketing.net/
6. Scrum Alliance. (2021). Agile in Healthcare. https://www.scrumalliance.org/why-scrum/industry-applications/healthcare
7. Agile Schools. (2021). Agile Schools. https://www.agile-schools.com/
8. Lean Enterprise Institute. (2021). Lean Manufacturing. https://www.lean.org/lean-manufacturing/what-is-lean-manufacturing
9. Martin, A., & Osterling, J. (2014). Scrum in education: A case study. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 4(2), 180–183.
10. Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), 202–217.
11. Rad, P., & Levin, G. (2006). Applying Agile methodologies to construction project management. Journal of construction engineering and management, 132(9), 957–965.
12. Sloane, P. (2011). Agile project management in government. Government Information Quarterly, 28(4), 507–513.
13. Tams, S., & Roode, D. (2015). Scrum and project management in higher education: A case study. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(2), 180–195.

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