‘I don’t need to worry about Agile teams because I’m not running a software company!’ – That’s what you may be thinking, and you wouldn’t be the only corporate decision-maker to feel this way. Many people associate Agile with Scrum and assume it’s a concept limited to tech companies. But ‘while Agile is a project management philosophy that utilizes a core set of values or principles, Scrum is a specific Agile methodology that is used to facilitate a project’.
Although Agile has traditionally been largely synonymous with digitisation, it comprises many more aspects in modern organisations – for example, taking full advantage of technologies, putting in place integrated, cross-functional teams and establishing agile HR practices. The Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources defines Agile as ‘a project management methodology that organises work into short bursts (sprints) so that changes can be made according to what has been learnt in those short bursts.’ The end goal is to build products or services iteratively, delivering early and often. This requires just the right mix of hard and soft skills.
So, why do you need an Agile team?
The Australian Government’s Digital Transformation Agency explains that ‘using agile methods allows you to be more proactive and respond easily to change’. In addition, research by McKinsey shows that businesses that have put in place Agile practices benefit from a two to ten times faster time-to-market, 5 to 30% higher customer satisfaction rates, a 15 to 20% increase in employee engagement, and cost savings of 10 to 20%. These certainly are impressive figures.
What’s more, the same study also found that ‘while Australia and New Zealand offer some pioneering successes in agile transformation, the model is less adopted and less deeply embedded than the global mean’. This means that, as an Australian business leader, you have a real opportunity here to get ahead of the game. This is especially true in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, when workers and decision-makers are more prepared to be flexible and adapt their working methods to disruption and change. So, there has never been a better time for Agile than now!
How does an Agile team maintain requirements?
Once your Agile teams are in place, you’ll need to make sure that they continue to meet requirements. This can be a challenge, especially in large organisations.
When it comes to managing Agile processes in your company, it may be helpful to follow the ideas behind the twelve principles of the Agile Manifesto, established at a 2001 summit of programming practitioners. In a nutshell, these are:
- Ensure early and uninterrupted delivery
- Utilise change to get a competitive edge
- Deliver working products frequently
- Ensure that business operations and IT work together
- Set up motivated project teams
- Make time for personal discussions and effective meetings
- Measure progress primarily by products created
- Keep a constant pace
- Focus on technical excellence
- Keep things simple
- Let teams organise themselves
- Make time for team reflection
What is an Agile organisation?
By following these principles, your teams should be able to easily maintain Agile requirements – and get back on track quickly if they run into unexpected difficulties. What’s more, many companies even hire specialised Agile coaches, says Indeed Hiring Lab’s Senior Economist Callam Pickering. Agile coaching can also help your teams stay on top of their requirements list.
How does an Agile team obtain clarity on backlog?
In Agile organisations, ‘backlog’ refers to a list of all things a team needs to prioritise and deliver in order for a product to emerge. This usually includes new product features, changes to existing properties, bug fixes and other improvements.
The backlog helps your teams to organise requirements into manageable chunks. These chunks are then prioritised and tackled in sprints each week. During each round, a team typically has a backlog refinement session with the respective product owner in order to gain clarity on the backlog items on the list. Importantly, product owners usually only focus on the items at the top of the backlog list in each case or reorder the backlog items by importance to help the team stay on the right track.
When should Agile teams make time for innovation?
According to a 2021 McKinsey Global Survey with 2,190 respondents across many industries and countries, ‘enterprise agility is […] a paradigm shift away from multilayered reporting structures, rigid annual budgeting, compliance-oriented culture, separation of business and technology, and other traits dominating organizations for the past hundred years’. Such a disruptive change can boost competitiveness among Agile adopters, as it allows businesses to move at unprecedented speeds. The same report also showed that Agile principles also help companies to drive more innovation and, ‘on the organization level, Agile emphasizes prioritization and reduces overhead roles, which leads to more efficiency’.
Agile is essentially the opposite of traditional bureaucratic and hierarchical organisational processes. It thrives in innovation-driven cultures that allow for flexible new approaches. This also means Agile needs leadership that enables innovative new approaches. This is where you come in!
The way forward for your business
Setting up Agile teams is more than just an HR tech trend. In times when even a long-established organisation like Australia Post goes Agile, there’s really no excuse for not following suit.
So, if you don’t already have Agile teams in place, take heed of the above principles and consider getting the ball rolling. And if you do already have some Agile processes set up in your organisation, take this opportunity to review them and see if there are areas in which they can be optimised. The result should be improvements in time-to-market, customer satisfaction rates, employee engagement and cost savings.
