Agile Transformation
People are attracted to agile practices and frameworks because of their simplicity. However, adopting agile can sometimes be more difficult than anticipated. One of the reasons is that adopting agile requires a paradigm shift that has far reaching consequences for the existing organisation. Additionally, the agile initiatives are often started bottom-up in different areas of the organisation and are therefore not aligned and coordinated towards a clear common organizational objective.
The challenges trying to spread agility within an organization are numerous: applying agile practices in development teams, developing the right skills for middle management, reorganizing duties, competences and responsibilities, setting goals and constraints instead of managing tasks, promoting self organisation, ability to deal with uncertainties for the yearly budgeting, etc.
C-Level managers, line managers, project managers or software developers: all have their own view what agile is. We will help you synthesize the different views into a holistic picture.
Our services include:
- Assessment of the organization regarding state and progress of applying agile principles and practices using our Agile Fitness Check
- Enabling C-Level managers, line managers and change agents to transform your organisation according to lean and agile principles
- Evaluating the appropriate agile framework (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.) and supporting tailoring to organisational needs
- Consulting during adoption of agile frameworks: definition, coaching, training
- Setup of agile requirements, release and test management
- Supporting the implementation/transitioning in your organization
Agile Fitness Check
Agility has become vital for organizations in times of digitisation and fast disruptive change.
Are you planning to go Agile but do not know, what to tackle first? When starting Agile transformations an independent assessment can be helpful to better understand the current situation and ensure the proper measures and actions are taken in the upcoming change.
Or is your organization or team already Agile and you wonder why the promised outcomes have not yet set in? Are you really acting in agile ways according to agile principles (being agile) or are you simply using agile methodologies (doing agile)? An independent assessment can help identify improvement potentials and intitiate proper corrective measures.
With our 4P Agile Fitness Check we will assess to what degree you are really acting according to the Agile principles, no matter what agile Framework you are using. We adopt a comprehensive analysis approach assessing not only the process, but all relevant factors in the 4P dimensions: People, Product, Process, Place.
Our 4P Agile Fitness Check services include:
Preparation:
- Define objectives and determine areas and boundaries to be evaluated
- Plan and organize interviews and conduct a kick-off meeting with all participants to communicate objectives, procedure and schedule
Execution:
- Study existing documentation
- Perform structured interviews and/or self-assessments
- Attend team ceremonies or perform team workshops
- Evaluate and validate the status quo against agile principles and practices
Closing:
- Facilitate a workshop to validate and prioritize proposed improvement measures
- Compile Agile Fitness Check Report
- Communicate findings and recommended measures and decisions
- Optional: Agile Transition Workshop to initiate the agile Transformation
Lean Change Management
Agile transformations are not about introducing a new method or process. Agile changes the way we act and work together in companies. It requires accepting and applying new (agile) values and principles, needs adopting new behaviours and requires each one of us to change. In short, agile transformations are a substantial organisational change requiring foresighted and carefully planned execution.
In our project business we have come to realise that projects, especially new product developments, are complex ventures that you cannot control and successfully execute by crafting a perfect plan upfront and then executing on it. Iterative and incremental approaches, allowing us to change direction when needed have proven to be the better choice. Organisational Change is certainly not less complex and our experience shows, that many change initiatives are not successful and do not yield the expected result. Wouldn’t it be better to implement our change initiatives using an iterative-incremental approach to account for the complexity of the change?
Lean Change Management moves the slider for managing change from using plan-driven approaches to an agile, feedback-driven approach. It combines the quick feedback loop from lean startup with tools, methods and models from agile and management of change and shifts the focus to iterative, incremental change with maximal involvement of the people affected by the change.
We help you to adopt the lean change approach to manage your change and successfully execute your agile transformation.
Our services include:
- Clarifying objectives and scope
- Preparing and executing an inception workshop to gain common insights about the change and create a Lean Change Canvas
- Setting up an agile guiding team to lead the change
- Supporting the development of
- a stakeholder and risk analysis
- a change roadmap and change backlog
- communication plan
- Actively and continuously involve people affected by the change, e.g. by establishing “Lean Coffee” sessions
- Coaching to identify options, execute “build-measure-learn” change experiments together with the people involved
- Coaching the guiding team in the execution of the change roadmap and in communication
- Coaching teams and managers in executing the change
