Leaders considering an Agile transformation should reach deep and examine their motives. They should also embark upon this journey with eyes wide open, understanding what they themselves must be willing to do to lead the charge. Let’s start with a gut-check list for leaders considering an Agile transformation:
- Am I willing to realign people to the flow of value?
- Am I willing to dedicate a few days of my time to help identify this new value-based structure?
- Am I willing to form cross-functional teams?
- Am I willing to define a small set of business objectives for the Agile transformation?
- Am I willing to take the time to develop an inspiring vision of our future state of agility?
- Am I willing to learn, exhibit, and mentor others in the Lean-Agile principles?
- Am I willing to spend potentially significant $$$ on an Agile transformation?
If you answered “Yes” to each one of these 7 gut-check questions, then you are ready to proceed with your Agile transformation.
If your answer to any one of these questions is “No”, then don’t waste your money on an Agile transformation – it is already doomed to failure.
Need more details on the gut-check list for leaders? Continue reading below.
- Am I willing to realign people to the flow of value?
Many enterprises are aligned around functional excellence, inadvertently creating silos of expertise. This siloed approach can cause discontinuous flow of value as each silo represents conflicting priorities, localized understanding, and sub-optimization of the system.
Imagine a world where the enterprise is organized (virtually or by org chart) along the value stream. This “team of teams” structure allows for smooth flow of value resulting in faster time to market. It avoids the start/stop flow discontinuity prevalent in traditional silo-based structures.
This key concept is the hallmark of an Agile transformation!
- Am I willing to dedicate a few days of my time to help identify this new value-based structure?
Exploring, envisioning, and creating your new value-based organizational structure takes a bit of time. Value stream mapping is a well-known Lean technique for determining the steps, systems, and teams involved in delivering a continuous flow of value to the customer.
The goals of the value stream mapping activity are:
- Understand and visualize the current state
- Design a future state aligned to value
- Develop the transformation plan
A value stream discovery event will typically require between 2 to 4 days. Attendees would include the leadership sponsor, key leaders across the functional silos who understand the current flow of value, key team members, and a Lean-Agile facilitator.
What a small cost to pay for something that could radically change your company’s future outlook!
- Am I willing to form cross-functional teams?
Agile teams must be cross-functional. Cross-functional means that an Agile team has every technical expertise needed to create a small, valuable product increment within a short period of time. This product increment can be released into a production environment for customer feedback.
Teams that are formed around component expertise (instead of cross-functional) cannot provide value until their output is integrated into the larger system. But it’s not about output, it’s about outcomes! The best outcome is a small product increment that can be released!
BONUS QUESTION: Am I willing to allow people to self-select into their new cross-functional team?
- Am I willing to define a small set of business objectives for the Agile transformation?
It’s not about “going Agile”. It’s about addressing a business objective, or small set of business objectives. The end game is enabling your enterprise to compete and win. By defining your business objective, a targeted outcome-oriented Agile transformation approach can be designed to ensure that your objective is achieved.
- Am I willing to take the time to develop an inspiring vision of our future state of agility?
Vision creation and communication of the Agile transformation is foundational to your transformation success. Paint the picture of your current state and desired future state. Explain the high-level steps in migration to the future step. Tie these steps back to your business objective. Be humble and admit you don’t know all the details. Ask for help and support from your talented people.
For an awe-inspiring vision of the future of farming, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nfqZGebr0g.
- Am I willing to learn, exhibit, and mentor others in the Lean-Agile principles?
The leadership needed for such a serious endeavor cannot be delegated. First and foremost, you will need to learn the basic Lean-Agile principles such as:
- Apply systems thinking
- Build incrementally with short learning cycles
- Reduce batch size and limit work in process
- Organize around the flow of value
For a more comprehensive list, see https://www.scaledagileframework.com/safe-lean-agile-principles/.
- Am I willing to spend potentially significant $$$ on an Agile transformation?
Some Agile transformations are small, self-contained, and targeted. These can be performed by leveraging innovative and passionate employees with perhaps a bit of outside Lean-Agile coaching assistance. In this situation, costs are minimal, typically in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Organization- and enterprise-wide Agile transformations are much more involved. These complex transformations will likely require a small cadre of Lean-Agile experts to help guide the organization to its desired new state in a timely manner. These types of transformations can cost millions of dollars. However, the end result could be much more valuable in terms of company survival, increased market competitiveness, and improved quality.
Wrap-Up
Agile transformations can be challenging and expensive. Don’t start a transformation of this magnitude without examining what you yourself are willing to do by using this gut-check list for leaders considering an Agile transformation. And finally, demonstrate the courage to do the heavy lifting – alignment to value!
“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”- Vince Lombardi
For more on SAFe, visit here. For more on what all is typically involved in an Agile transformation, visit here.