Top 5 Principles in Becoming ‘Agile’ During Digital Transformation Implementation

“We want to be Agile…”

“We want to take an Agile approach to delivering…” It’s a phrase heard frequently from organizations as they take on complex digital transformation implementations. Agile is a popular term that gets project teams excited. There’s excitement in the promise of a speedy delivery and return on investment—one that allows flexibility in scope, requirements and discovery. Unfortunately, all too often, that excitement fades quickly and is replaced by anxiety of promises unfulfilled.

Why Agile?

According to the Agile Practice Guide, developed jointly by PMI and the Agile Alliance and published in September 2017: “More mature organizations are increasingly prone to being highly complex and potentially slow to innovate, and lag behind in delivering new solutions to their customers…speed of change will continue to drive large organizations to adopt an Agile mindset in order to stay competitive and keep their existing market share”.

When an Agile project fails to deliver on promises and benefits of the delivery framework are not realized, organization leaders can be quick to characterize Agile as a flawed idea. In many cases, after closer review, the cause of failed Agile projects is not because of the idea, but rather the execution. In fact, when Agile projects are executed with a solid understanding of Agile principles the results can be realized, as advertised.

Understanding Agile Principles

Many organizations have grown familiar with the concept of Agile projects, which is certainly a good starting point for moving in the direction of project delivery. However, in order to take the next step of realizing the promises of successful Agile endeavors, one needs to understand the principles that support this framework.

The following outlines the “12 Agile Principles”. These are commonly understood within the practicing Agile community. Organizations are well-served to ensure project teams are knowledgeable in these principles and adhere to them when determining how to tailor an Agile approach to meet their project(s) business objectives.

Top 5 Principles in Becoming Agile

Witnessing trials and triumphs of small- and large-scale Agile projects, below are five key principles that organizations should give close consideration to in order to realize the promise of successful Agile execution. Related “Do’s and Don’ts” are offered based on practical experience.

Top 5 Principles		How To Apply
1	Highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early delivery of value	Do’s Maintain focus on customer business objectives and what products/features drive value Prioritize efforts on what can bring the most value the soonest Don’ts Devote time to delivering complex project artifacts that could be better spent delivering valued functionality Back-load delivery of high-value functionality for fear of complexity/risk…take them on early!
2	Working software is the measure of success	Do’s Measure a project’s productivity based on fully functioning products (you know it’s done, when you see it working) Focus efforts on activities that demonstrate working software and/or remove roadblocks in the way of its delivery Don’ts Spend time and effort measuring partial completion (e.g., % completion of in-progress items) Hold traditional status meetings. This can lead to the infamous “we’re almost complete”
3	Welcome changing requirements	Do’s Recognize requirements become clearer when solutions are demonstrated against use cases Understand marketplace developments can be addressed by accepting new requirements Keep open dialogue between business and delivery teams to trade; accepting new value-add requirements with de-prioritizing previous requirements for sake of time and cost Don’ts Reject value-added changes simply because a pre-dated milestone has passed Introduce unnecessary bureaucracy as a deterrent to change Accept changes without challenging value proposition (in a simple manner)
4	Practice the art of simplicity	Do’s Accept simple solutions that satisfy business needs Place value on what has demonstrated to work well enough Remember that a simple solution can be enhanced later Don’ts Delay demonstrating work functionality for the sake of perfecting it Fill idle time by gold-plating work functionality. Use additional time to pull-forward efforts that have not started
5	Build motivated teams and trust them to get the job done	Do’s Create simple status tools (easy to interpret and update) and make them publicly visible. Allow teams to spend more time delivering than report Empower project team to make delivery decisions based on a trusted understanding of business-valued objectives Support a self-organized team that knows what it takes to deliver by allowing freedom to make internal decisions Don’ts Attempt to micro-manage by adding layers of reporting/approval that detract from time spent delivering Pull teams from agreed upon delivery cycles to attend management/status meetings Slow delivery progress due to cumbersome decision processes

Author Profile

James Boyd

Director - Opportune LLP

James Boyd is a Director in Opportune’s Process and Technology practice and has 19 years of process and technology consulting experience, including more than 15 years of project/program management experience. He is experienced in leading system integration and technical transition efforts leveraging expertise in technology and business processes, as well as proven skills in people and stakeholder management. Prior to joining Opportune, James was a certified Technology Architect as a member of Accenture’s Energy practice, servicing clients as an expert system integration manager withextensivepackage and custom software delivery and product lifecycle knowledge. James is a certified Project Manager (PMP) and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP).

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