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What IS an agile transformation?
And why do so many organisations struggle to achieve it?
The very word transformation means a fundamental change, something that changes the nature of the thing being changed, or how it functions — like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. It implies that there is a lot more going on than changing the way development teams do their work. It can’t all be about backlogs and standup meetings, can it? No, of course not.
You may have heard or read people say it’s about “being agile, not doing agile”. Yes, but what does that mean, exactly.
It means that the entire delivery organisation (at least) is designed specifically to be agile — to be adaptable, resilient, customer-centric, caring. It means that everything we do is about the rapid delivery of high-value, high-quality product through close collaboration. It is about being really good at deciding what not do do… yet. It is about deliberately creating short feedback loops and incremental delivery. About recognising and eliminating wasteful practices and processes. About knowing the relative value of everything we do and build and deliver, and doing today only what is most valuable, and completing it, before deciding what the next most valuable thing is. It is about doing those things quickly, without unnecessary delay, but doing so safely and…
