Agile is about being able to adapt and respond to change quickly, and agility is constantly questioning how to improve the way you work and implementing incremental changes.
Agile can be summarized by:
- The importance of the team and how they chose to operate
- The emergent clarity of desired outcomes and decisions made at the last responsible moment
- The ability to change rapidly and easily
Agile adoption is driven by, first, the understanding what agility is all about (values, principles, practices, and outcomes), then, figuring out the purpose of agility by mapping the understanding to the organization’s reality.
Once the organization is comfortable with agility as a means to value delivery, we set up the ecosystem for agility to prosper, we decide what agile practices we use to enable the agility initiative, and the changes in work methods support a cultural shift.
- The Agile Ecosystem is shaped by the organization’s vision, purpose and goals. All contributing entities (teams and individuals) to the organization value chain, must align to these. Each entity functions following agile/lean values and principles in order to enable agility.
- The Agile Practices are chosen in line with the organization’s ways of work and the vision to achieve business goals. The recommended agile practices are time boxed iteration for delivery process, and flow management for all other processes.
- In support of both the agile system and practices, people within the organization will begin adapting to the agile working ways, and a new work culture is likely to emerge.
Within an agility aligned ecosystem, all fit for purpose initiatives should be set up for agility by,
- defining what to do (create a backlog of what needs to be done)
- define needs, this triggers the conception and realization of user stories
- agree outcomes, what is of value for the customer in order to originate flow
- selecting who will do it (form a team that has all the competence and skills to complete the work)
- Organize clarity (conversations about needs and US’s), speed (cadence of delivery), and accountability (taking ownership of delivery)
- setting the ground rules on how to do it (agree on how work is going to be done in order to deliver value frequently)
- Keep visibility (this backs up conversations and understanding of needs, helps manage flow and cadence, and clarifies commitment
- manage options and test assumptions (how work is prioritized, estimated, validated, and completed)
Agility grants the viability of the value chain:
Do the right thing – Do it right – Do it on time – Keep doing it.
Adaptive Ways 