If you are responsible at a senior level for business strategy - COO, CIO in the Corporate Sector or, the Public Sector equivalent - PO's & Assistant Secretaries, you'll be concerned about your capability to effect change in your business at an appropriate rate to achieve your business objectives. Business Agility is about being able to change your business quickly, whether actively in pursuit of your strategic vision, or in reaction to changes in the marketplace. You might be surprised to know that some of your IT staff, and their business colleagues, are finding ways to attain this business agility from the bottom-up. They need your help. It may be of great benefit to your business to support them from the top-down.
Implementing Business Strategies
When we define long term Business Strategies and Objectives, we don't expect to be exact. The further away the time frame, the fuzzier we allow the objective or goal to be. Our longer term goals will change and become more focussed as we learn from our activities and get closer to the target. We will be more precise in our definition of short-term, tactical objectives.
Whatever the size of your organisation, achieving the long term business vision will require some transition, which will normally be managed through a Change Programme ('a portfolio of projects effecting strategic business change'). As many a COO/CIO has learned to their cost, implementing change is not easy. In the same way as Business Strategies will evolve at an organisational level, to be really agile, flexibility is the key to successful Change Management and must be applied at the level of the individual change project. Agility is about accepting that whilst the overall objective must be understood and agreed from the start of a project, the detailed steps required to achieve that objective will evolve as the project team learn more about the problem to be resolved. While this may seem that the programme "is being made up as we go along", it actually involves trusting the team to make correct decisions - empowering people to deliver. It also requires that the individuals within a team must trust each other, and work in a real collaborative manner.
The Place of Agile Methods
Agile change methodologies provide support for this through principles and practices, and by providing common-sense, undemanding (Light), change management frameworks. A number of 'Light' change management methodologies have been developing since the mid nineties, aimed at addressing the need for rapid business change. These methodologies include framework for Business Centred Development (from the DSDM Consortium) and eXtreme Programming (XP), and are exposed and energised by practitioners, through the Agile Alliance, and more recently through Agile Alliance Europe (www.agileallianceeurope.org). If, as a senior manager, you are concerned about business agility, and about the ability of your people to work in an empowered and collaborative fashion, support is available from the Agile Alliance and the DSDM Consortium. Indeed, some of your people may already be taking the initiative!
The Groundswell
I've recently been to the quarterly gathering of the Irish Special Interest Group (SIG) of Agile Alliance Europe. Approximately 70 of us gathered this evening in one of the large conference rooms in Jury's hotel in Ballsbridge. We were a mixed bunch. From a show of hands, approximately 50% of our number were IT Developers. The rest of us were a mix of Managers, Business Change Agents and Quality Assurance (Testing) specialists. The really important point is that we were all practitioners, people involved in IT-enabled Business Change Projects on a daily basis. And we were all there to share our experiences of Agile, common-sense approaches to executing IT-enabled Business Change.
For over two hours, we were facilitated through a session of the XP Game. This is a unique games based approach to learning and understanding the principles behind XP and Agile methods. One of the key practices of all Agile methods is the active collaboration of the participants from whatever discipline, in all aspects of product development. During the game, we constantly switched roles between developers and customers, providing each group with the opportunity to experience life from the point of view of the other. Everyone got really actively involved, and the enthusiasm was maintained late into the evening.
Here was a group of people concerned enough about doing things the right way that they are prepared to give-up their own time to share with and learn from their peers. These practitioners recognise that they have issues in their everyday management of change, and are proactively looking for ways to ease their pains.
So how can you help as a Senior Manager ?
One of the recurring concerns I hear, whenever I meet with these agile practitioners, is the 'lack of sponsorship' for the introduction of 'Agile' approaches.
As I mentioned above, Business Agility involves trust - Senior Management must set the boundaries for change, establish trust and empower their people to deliver. Multi-disciplined teams must trust each other, and work in a real collaborative manner. To be Agile, organisations must find the right balance between using a structured and disciplined approach to managing change on the one hand, yet retaining the flexibility required to change direction as and when required.
Determine whether your staff are considering, or actively practising Agile Methods :
- If they are, then make it your business to understand how this impacts your responsibilities as a sponsor of change. Let them know that they have your support, encourage them through active funding, and through the provision of the human resources they require, particularly to enable the Active User Involvement that Agile Change requires.
- If they are not, then find out why not, particularly if you recognise the need for Business Agility to enable the achievement of your business goals. Find a champion within your organisation who also recognises the need for Business Agility, and work together to understand these new approaches.
In either case, treat the transition to 'Agile Change Management' as a business change in its own right. Understand the impact and cost to your business, and measure the return on your investment. Set objectives, and measure progress. Above all, communicate your successes.