5/4/2023 0 Comments Nimble synonymAlthough the method is less useful in routine operations and processes, these days most companies operate in highly dynamic environments. IT's most famous idea didn't start in IT. With the best of intentions, they erode the benefits that agile innovation can deliver. They routinely overturn team decisions and add review layers and controls to ensure that mistakes aren’t repeated. They promote marginal ideas that a team has previously considered and back-burnered. Many of them become overly involved in the work of individual teams. They schedule frequent meetings with members of agile teams, forcing them to skip working sessions or send substitutes. They spread themselves and their best people across too many projects. These executives launch countless initiatives with urgent deadlines rather than assign the highest priority to two or three. Consequently, they unwittingly continue to manage in ways that run counter to agile principles and practices, undermining the effectiveness of agile teams in units that report to them. But because they haven’t gone through training, they don’t really understand the approach. When we ask executives what they know about agile, the response is usually an uneasy smile and a quip such as “Just enough to be dangerous.” They may throw around agile-related terms (“sprints,” “time boxes”) and claim that their companies are becoming more and more nimble. ![]() The opportunity in other parts of the company is substantial.īut a serious impediment exists. What if a company could achieve positive returns with 50% more of its new-product introductions? What if marketing programs could generate 40% more customer inquiries? What if human resources could recruit 60% more of its highest-priority targets? What if twice as many workers were emotionally engaged in their jobs? Agile has brought these levels of improvement to IT. The spread of agile raises intriguing possibilities. And GE relies on them to speed a much-publicized transition from 20th-century conglomerate to 21st-century “digital industrial company.” By taking people out of their functional silos and putting them in self-managed and customer-focused multidisciplinary teams, the agile approach is not only accelerating profitable growth but also helping to create a new generation of skilled general managers. Mission Bell Winery uses them for everything from wine production to warehousing to running its senior leadership group. ![]() Robinson, a global third-party logistics provider, applies them in human resources. Intronis, a leader in cloud backup services, uses them in marketing. John Deere uses them to develop new machines, and Saab to produce new fighter jets. National Public Radio employs agile methods to create new programming. Now agile methodologies-which involve new values, principles, practices, and benefits and are a radical alternative to command-and-control-style management-are spreading across a broad range of industries and functions and even into the C-suite. Over the past 25 to 30 years they have greatly increased success rates in software development, improved quality and speed to market, and boosted the motivation and productivity of IT teams. They expand on each, providing executives with a practical guide for accelerating innovation and profitable growth.Īgile innovation methods have revolutionized information technology. But many executives don’t understand how to promote and benefit from agile often they manage in ways that run counter to its principles and practices, undermining the effectiveness of agile teams in their organizations.įrom their work studying and advising companies that have successfully employed agile methods, the authors have discerned six crucial practices for capitalizing on agile’s potential: (1) Learn how agile really works (2) understand when it is appropriate (3) start small and let passionate evangelists spread the word (4) allow teams that have mastered the process to customize their practices (5) practice agile at the top and (6) destroy corporate barriers to agile behaviors. Now those methods are spreading across a broad range of industries and functions and even reaching into the C-suite. Over the past 25 to 30 years, agile innovation methods have greatly increased success rates in software development, improved quality and speed to market, and boosted the motivation and productivity of IT teams.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |