Why Organizations adopt Agile? (RT)

https://www.agilealliance.org/why-do-organizations-adopt-agile/ by Kent McDonald

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The development of agile software has become fairly commonplace, some people may even say that it is now popular. Some people can even say that it is now mainstream.

Agile organizations have met with varying levels of success, and I suspect that this has something to do with the fact that they decided to adopt Agile in the first place.

Here are some of the main reasons for organizations adopting Agile and a look at why the reason your organization chose to adopt Agile may impact how successful your Agile adoption is. And what can be the consequences of choosing an Agile adoption?

Everyone Else is Doing It

Agile is used by some organizations, they are concerned that they will be at a disadvantage if they do not adopt it.

I think it is a simple “everyone else is doing it, so we should to” and not a recipe for success.

The organization which adopts Agile to keep up with everyone else fall into the trap of adopting some of the practices and use terms, but not understand what it is that they should do.

As they say, these companies rarely see many of the advantages that come with adopting an Agile approach and can make software development situation worse. The structure in them was lost before but not replaced by the appropriate level of self-discipline required for implementing Agile approaches effectively.

Better Faster Cheaper

Some organizations adopt Agile for the purpose of improving speed to market, meet customer demand, or improve team productivity.

It is possible to say that these organizations are seek efficiency. There are many people who want to develop software that is better, faster and cheaper.

In the event of disappointment, these organizations are potentially setting up for disappointment.

These organizations may experience increased speed and lower costs because they cut out processes that don't add value. The reason for this is the fact that they cut out processes that do not add value. In addition, they may also deliver increments of their product sooner than they would have before.

In case of organizations follow the technical practices included in Extreme Programming, they may develop better software. If organizations follow extreme techniques, they can develop better software.

And just adopting Agile does not mean that this organization will develop software better, faster and more economically. In order to solve the problem, teams need to be prepared to stop working on a product after resolving the problem that they set out to solve, even if there are still things in their backlog.

They have to make the hard decision about what they will not work on. Organizations need to be willing to make an honest decision about what they are not going to do. Group teams must take an alternative approach to solve the problem than what originally thought.

None of this is necessarily “Agile” ideas, but they are essential prioritization concepts for experiencing positive results with Agile approaches.

A Means to an End

It is possible for some organizations to improve the quality of work in the field of software development, IT, or other knowledge work activities and see that Agile together with other ideas will help them achieve this.

They are the only companies that do not see Agile as an end goal, rather they want more effective software development or have a specific problem to solve. Agile approaches are very effective in the development of software, as it gives them a way to approach continuous improvement and adopt more effective software development practices.

In this case, these organizations are also less likely to even proclaim that they are doing Agile or even “being Agile”. Instead, they have identified some approaches and practices that seem to help them achieve what they are going to do.

Why did your organization adopt Agile?

In the first place, it is very important to reflect on the reason why your organization decided adopt Agile in the first place.

You have decided to start your Agile transformation in the interest of keeping up with other organizations that are present on the market? In general, is most of the conversation about frameworks and specific practice? If you are not sure if this is the case, you can suggest a stop to evaluate why your organization decided to adopt Agile. In order to identify the problem that your organization wanted to solve and come up with some objective methods to know when you've solved it. There is a hint: the problem was not that you did not use Agile.

Why was your Agile transformation started in the interest of improving efficiency? What are the goals of people in your organization? Are you focusing on improving velocity and getting things delivered faster? Should it be that way, then you can suggest that the focus should not be on producing faster things and rather try to focus on producing right things. As you are working on your products, encourage your organization to explore how prioritization decisions are made and approach work on your products from the perspective of resolving problems with the minimum number of work as possible rather than trying to complete all items on backlog.

Did your organization begin adopting Agile where it made sense to help you address some challenge you were facing? And did they start adopting Agile in order to help you solve some challenge you were faced? You should continue to evaluate whether you are addressing those problems and finding techniques or practices that help you move forward, whether those techniques are considered “Agile” or not.

How did your organization start adopting Agile? Why did your organization start adopting Agile? Anyone has experienced the outcomes that you thought it would be? You can share your experiences in the comments.

The Author – Kent McDonald
Agile Alliance community blog post. This is an Agile Alliance community blogpost. The opinion represented is personal and belong to the author. They are not representatives of the opinion or policy of Agile Alliance.