The study aims to explore the potential of the Agile Manifesto and how its principles could assist the business to become more flexible and resilient. In the first part, the paper introduces the Agile principles and elaborates on the methodology. The author concludes that the Agile principles represented by the Manifesto are transferable across a variety of industries and could help organisations improve their ability to adapt.
Today’s businesses are being exposed to disruptive technologies, rapid changes and other external forces that create an extremely volatile environment. Those organisations focused on developing and maintaining competitive advantages are required to regularly screen the market to identify risks and opportunities successfully. Some industries might operate in more unpredictable environments than others. For instance, organisations focused on software development have been forced to re-structure their operations and culture in order to become more flexible and resilient. Hence, seeking innovative methodologies and frameworks to adapt to changes quickly has resulted in a new paradigm shift. However, while organisations focused on software development have started a new generation of agile age, other industries following linear processes could find themselves trapped in rigid systems.
The article will attempt to explore how the Agile Manifesto which was initially established for software developing companies could benefit various types of non-IT businesses. Rather than elaborating on how to implement agile methodologies, the paper will focus on how individual principles could be transferred to different industries, such as construction, manufacturing, and so forth. The objective of the paper is to provide suggestions that could improve organisations’ strategy and operations and become more flexible and resilient. The paper builds on academic journals, case studies and widely accepted methodologies
The Agile Manifesto was officially established in 2001 by a group of independent practitioners (Agile, 2011). The objectives of the concept are simple yet powerful, to deliver higher-value faster, improve productivity and achieve sustainability. Since 2011 Agile has evolved into a variety of methodologies that have been embedded in or combined with well-established frameworks, for instance, Agile with Lean or Lean with Kanban. The Agile Manifesto is a set of four simple rules that have been further explained by the Canadian engineer and author focused on disciplined agile delivery, Scott Ambler (Ambler, 2012).
This chapter will discuss how specific business functions could learn from the agile approach. The content will focus on internal and external factors such as leadership, business environment, customers, structure, and so forth. The goal of the chapter is to explore key business activities and define recommendations utilizing agile practices that could be beneficial to otherwise rigid methodologies.
Leadership and culture
Creating the right environment that supports creativity and collaboration in organisations is the first step in building strong foundations. Hence, identifying and promoting the right values and principles that embrace shifting companies’ mindset is often a great challenge for leadership teams. For instance, transforming teams to become self-managed units is one of the key attributes that Agile organisations aim to achieve. For incumbents and mature businesses, such transformation would require a deep intervention into leadership styles to promote collaborations and a new model of collectivism through individual uniqueness. Organisations could consider the following:
Nimble organisations should focus on delegating the authority from the “back” to the “front” office, which could be extremely valuable, especially in client-facing roles, to improve customer satisfaction. The flexibility should also be nurtured through operations and systems where pre-defined procedures might require more room for creativity and rather than imposing a single method; activities could be bounded by a generic framework.
Recommendations:
Organisations should evaluate the capacity and ability to screen the external environment continuously. For instance, benchmarking – determining their positions in the market, creating an image of the current situation and developing awareness about risk and opportunities could be integrated into day-to-activities. The outcome could help businesses determine the strategy and resources required to achieve objectives (e.g. skills, technology, operations, and so forth).
Moreover, businesses need to accept the fact that they co-exist within a complex system (Francisco & Fernndes, 2010), which resulted in creating an extremely volatile environment where time has become a scarcity. With less time and radical changes, companies are required to quickly adapt across all three levels; organisational, operational and individual. For instance, creating a budget for strategic investments for the following financial could consider new opportunities that have not been accounted for initially.
Similarly, assessing organisational or operational risks should be conducted more often to ensure effective risk management (e.g. regulations, technology, competitors, new markets, and so forth). A shorter iterative cycle could also be applied to monitoring risks and opportunities. Incremental improvements based on customers feedback could improve overall customer satisfaction (Kompalla et al., 2016).
Recommendations:
From the recommendations, it is apparent that organisations would need to shorten their iterative cycles (routines) across business functions and focus on prioritising. The organisation-level responsibilities such as planning and forming strategies, allocating resources and evaluating could be integrated into day to day operations. Moreover, creating and maintaining the right culture should become one of the foundations of the business so that the operational and management processes are adequately supported.
The Agile methodology was initially established to assist software developers to deliver higher valuer faster in a rapidly changing environment. The paper proposed that agile principles could be applicable across different industries to improve organisation ability to adapt and operate more efficiently. The author argued that creating agile organisations requires establishing the right mindset because the agile principles are enhanced through the organisation culture and strong leadership.
It was apparent from the context that organisations willing to become agile should focus on the structure, developing mutual trust and empowering team collaboration. Furthermore, there is evidence, that the ability to adapt is strongly correlated with organisations’ capabilities to understand markets and external factors that are being continually assessed. This might include, for instance, technology, trends, skills, economic and political aspects.
The author proposed examples in recommendations that could benefit companies facing challenges to adapt quickly. Organisations that heavily rely on linear processes, complex decision-making process and long lead time could utilise the advantage of short iterative cycles and prioritising tasks over-committing to static programs. Such routines should be implemented in day-to-day operations and become part of the organisation culture.
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Author: Marek Teply, LIGS University student, under the supervision of Dr. Zdeno Matta.