Agile

Embracing Agile: A Harvard Business Review Review. Part 2.

Luis Ortiz

— 2 min read
Embracing Agile: A Harvard Business Review Review. Part 2.

SoftwareDevTools is making a Harvard Business Review Review (Yeah, that's not a typo).
We are dissecting the famous article: "Embracing Agile" by Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland & Hirotaka Takeuchi.

As you can tell by the Products we build, we are making Agile practices easier for remote teams in different platforms like Atlassian Confluence or Slack. But we are also always looking for ways to share Agile's best practices worldwide.

In the "Embracing Agile" article, the authors describe 6 crucial practices for leaders to adopt in order to capitalize the full Agile's potential.

This is the second part of a 6 part series. Here's part 1. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on social networks for more.

Part 2: Understand where Agile does or does not work.

The authors are well aware that Agile is not the answer to every organizational process, and may not be the best option under certain conditions.

They have been able to identify that Agile is most effective and easiest to implement under conditions typically found in the Software industry:

  • The Problem to be solved is complex: Cross-functional collaboration is vital.
  • Solutions are initially unknown: Customer preferences and solution options change frequently.
  • Product Requirements will most likely fail: The scope isn't clearly defined, Creative breakthroughs are important.
  • Work can be modularized: Work can be conducted in rapid, iterative cycles.
  • Close collaboration with end users is feasible.
  • Creative teams will typically outperform command-and-control groups.

They acknowledge the fact that these conditions exist in some areas of an organization and may be less common (or not there at all) in others.

Another great thing they point out is one of Agiles core principles:

“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”

In order to do so, they continue, you need motivated individuals. Better to enlist passionate volunteers than to coerce resisters into adopting these methodologies.

With these easy pointers, you'll be able to identify whether Agile is for you or not. According to the authors, these conditions will be less prevalent in routine operations, so it may not be the best option for you. After all, Agile requires effort & resources in order to be adopted. Is up to the executives to decide whether the anticipated payoffs are worth the investment.

That's how you can make a compelling case for #Agile adoption in your organization!

This is part 2 of a series of blog posts. Here's Part 1 and Part 3 : Start Small and Let the Word Spread

Trying to improve your #Agile practices? OR are you getting started with Agile? Are you in a remote team? Check out our products for Agile teams at SoftwareDevTools. We focus on making agile ceremonies more effective and easier to adopt for remote teams.

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