Agile and various Agile techniques and approaches have been here with us for over 20 years. They originated in IT and gradually spread to all other fields of work. However, we still sometimes come across a misunderstanding of who Agility really is for and what possibilities it brings. Therefore, we will try to outline the different areas in which we have met/implemented the Agile Approach and the benefits it has had for the organization.
What is an Agile Approach? It is a way of organizing work, companies, teams and projects so that their work produces more valuable results significantly earlier and significantly more efficiently. And all this with higher satisfaction and greater employee engagement.
Sounds too nice, doesn't it? So who can it be used for?
Agility in the development team
The agile approach was created precisely for the work of development teams. The main problem at the time was (and still is today) that such a team arrives late to the customer's requests, only through intermediation and without the possibility to speak to them. This often leads to mutual frustration — the team is forced to create something they know is nonsense, and the customer gets something they didn't really need and still have to pay for.
Agile approach in development was created precisely to bring customers and development teams closer to each other, make it easier for them to communicate over the assignment, and speed up feedback over the intended output. This way, the customer is much more likely to get exactly what they really need.
Agility in (any) projects
We do projects in order to achieve some intended output. For example, they built a house, replaced the computer system with a new one, changed the work process, expanded our offer for customers and the like. The project covers such activities, specifies a plan, a goal, a way to reach the goal, a budget and much more. However, a common problem with projects tends to be that they try to devise, set and maintain the only correct planned path to an outcome regardless of changing realities. This leads, like the amount of work in development teams, to disillusionment with the result — the result is late, long, or different than we really need.
Agile approach to projects It's a way of looking at the project as a living thing that it really is. How to treat changing requirements and circumstances not as a problem, but as a normal, or even welcome thing that simply changes the rules of the game and needs to be worked on dynamically. This is exactly how experienced project managers conduct their projects. In addition, Agility offers its tools and approaches that simplify the classic project approach and increase the likelihood of success.
Agility in the manufacturing company
The manufacturing industry took a while to find its way to Agility, which bore the label of “those weird meetings for AI guys.” After all, the production is clear, described, obvious. The requirements are drawn in the plans, the production process is given, or even fine-tuned by Lean techniques. So where is there room for some Agility?
However, whenever we deal with the topic Agility in production, we find a lot of areas where it will apply.
- The first area is the area of new product creation — there the teams clearly fall into the “development team” category above. The fact that they work with physical products and prototypes does not change the fact that Agility helps them to clarify the goal and reach it faster and often in a shorter way.
- The second area is that of planning, projects and capacities. There, Agile principles often help you sort priorities correctly, figure out how to properly organize and sort out projects, and how to solve team overloads that lead to delays.
- And the third area is often an area of culture and respect. Production is still often the domain of “divide and conquer” managers, who manage everything directly and team members are only replaceable resources for them. After all, finding a worker is probably easier than finding an experienced banking systems programmer. Agility here, with its techniques and approaches, helps to show how a correct and respectful approach can work wonders with employee motivation and fire.
We wrote more about everything that can be done in the production of Agilna here: https://www.rainfellows.com/cs/agilni-ve-strojirenstvi/
Agility in Operations
After all, operational teams, such as purchasing and invoicing departments, process clear requirements that go to them according to the standards they have defined. Where is Agility needed here?
Agility in Operations It can be applied again on multiple levels. On the one hand, operational teams are often overloaded, either long-term or bumpy. Simple visualization techniques (such as Kanban) will help them with the necessary prioritization, possibly reveal which parts have been neglected for a long time and provide specific suggestions for what to do with it.
Second — and operational teams work on development activities and projects. Most of the time, they try to “somehow” catch them at a standard job. Agile techniques (such as a simple lightweight sprint and planning) help them to understand what is currently a priority and what at least a small part of the project they can work out and thus actually complete the whole project.
Agility in Management
Every company has its own managers and leaders who handle a multitude of tasks, projects, daily tasks and topics — sometimes an incredible amount. These tasks are simply necessary to run the business, in short, they need to be done. So what about Agilize?
Agility in Management Here it can bring similar benefits to operational teams. It will help leaders choose what is their top priority at the moment, focus on it, and actually clear the topic, not just extinguish it. At the same time, it will help them define what it means that the topic is handled — not only “I have a solution on paper”, but also that the solution has been thought out, passed the opposition, has been implemented and brings the desired benefits. Such formalization of work often brings leaders not only more cleared topics, but also more peace of mind at work and less “firefighting”.
And last but not least, it often helps leaders realize what they really do, how much time they spend on it, and allows them to compare it with their intention, how much time they actually want to invest where they want to invest. This will also help them understand why some activities and projects made by their employees do not run as fast as they would like — and especially what they can do for it themselves! With this proactive approach, they set an example for employees and once again amplify their engagement.
Agility at the board level
The Board of Directors is the highest level of leaders in the company, but it is still only a group of leaders. They are concerned with the same topics, problems and opportunities as leaders in management.
Familiarity Agility at the Board Level It is also a great prerequisite for the successful implementation of any Agile initiatives across the company. Every “across” initiative needs an owner/sponsor who keeps it going with their attention. Knowledge of Agile principles will help board members understand what is needed from them and how they themselves can significantly influence the success of even seemingly remote initiatives. Moreover, especially with such high-profile sponsors, the effect of feeling “he's in it with us” is powerful and beneficial.
Agility in Transformation and Improvement Changes
All companies are undergoing changes — from small and operational to large and strategic. These changes are directly driven by members of management and the board, it's their job. So why Agile?
A typical corporate transformation is a rather complex activity involving a large number of activities, artifacts and soft tasks. In the best case, it tends to be managed projectively (see above), at worst chaotically. In that case Agility in Transformation brings several aspects needed for success. It helps visualize and prioritize a lot of transformational work, uses iterations to help focus on key valuable parts and quickly refine them, helps to continually reassess transformation goals to remain valuable, and it also helps to look at the cultural aspect of change — how it will affect people and how to make changes as a team and with them.
Agility in HR
After all, HR is a support function that is supposed to supply us with capable people to work for reasonable money, or to solve the bureaucracy associated with them. So what good would Agility be to them?
Such simplification and rejection of the actual HR function and Agility in HR We still meet occasionally — even in seemingly model companies, we met HR people at the tail end of the activities, where they just received fire from all sides. Yes, HR can only function as a service organization, but it brings much more value when its role as Human Relations is appreciated, where in addition to these jobs, they help people in the company actually live and enjoy their work (as far as possible). Agility as such can help HR with their administrative and procedural side, but it plays a major role in the development of corporate culture. An agile culture is based on respect for people and their involvement in important decisions. Using the right Agile techniques, approaches, and thought models can save a company large retention costs and building an employee brand.
Agility and people
A special chapter at the end, which has already been partially contained in the paragraphs above. A lot of people under the word Agility only imagine techniques, processes, faster development and morning standups. This technical part of Agility is better known because it is simpler, sells well, easy to learn and implement, and basically nothing much can go wrong with it.
But there is a second, non-technical part. Agility and peoplewhich is generally called Agile Culture. Agile culture builds on respect for people, faith in their abilities, and a safe environment for experimentation and (controlled) failure. This is the only way to build in your teams the true confidence, enthusiasm and legendary drive for goal that we see in the inspiring Agile videos.
This work on Agile Culture is no longer so popular, for many reasons: it is not easy to learn, pass on and understand well, it can be spoiled quite easily and, most importantly, it is laborious — it requires a lot of diligence and ant work. We work here with people and the human ego, and that's a complicated job. After all, it is SO easy as a manager to roll up your sleeves, to run into the team, to solve it effectively, to decide for them... “But they themselves want it from me! That's why I'm the manager, right?” But it is by this that we take away autonomy from teams, deprive them of valuable lessons, and make them dependent on the person of the leader - we make them “just” workers. Topic Agility and people is not simple, but it permeates all aspects of work in all fields without exception and brings tremendous value.
We wrote more about Agile Culture here: https://www.rainfellows.com/cs/agilni-kultura-a-leadership-clanek/
Which Agile area did we miss? Or do you know of any area where you are convinced that Agility will not find a place?