The Agility Philosophy: Understanding Winning Ways

Clayton Long ISP

IT Management Consultant

Corvelle Management Consultants

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Learning Objectives

Articulate the components of an agile organization and IT Dept

Identify the traits of an agile organization and IT Dept

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Clay’s Background

Been in Business for 26 years 18 years in Information Technology

From field to the boardroom originally Power Systems Electrician began IT in 1984 Management Systems Analyst

Consulted with DMR - Senior Project Manager Director of IT at ENMAX Senior Management Consultant - Corvelle

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Pace of Change

Pace of change continues to move faster, less time to react to change

Organizations able to react and adapt to change quickly will be the most successful

Being agile helps organizations respond to changes more quickly

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Changes Impacting Business

Market fragmentation Competition pressures Corporate reorganization frenzy Industry/regulatory environment churn Technology evolution Shrinking product lifetimes Information capacity to treat masses of

customers as individuals

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Problem - Solution

If turbulence and turmoil define the problem, then agility is key to the solution.

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Definition of Agile

Marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace

Mentally quick and resourceful

Source - Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

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Agility in Business

The ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent

business environment.

The ability to rapidly change direction and to shift focus and resources from areas of

low return to areas of high return.

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Agile Company

For a company, to be agile is to be capable of operating profitably in a competitive

environment of continually, and unpredictably, changing business

opportunities.

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Agile Individual

For an individual, to be agile is to be capable of contributing to the bottom line

of a company that is constantly reorganizing its human and technological resources in response to unpredictably

changing business opportunities.

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Is Agility More Than Just Architecture?

Perception is that agility comes from technology architecture

Corporate culture & attitude has an enormous impact on a company’s agility

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CIO’s On Agile IT Depts

Constant whitewater requires just-in-time program development & rapid application of resources to emerging problems & opportunities

Greater centralization vs. greater decentralization & delegation

Ever-exquisite responsiveness to business needs

Inspire & enable greater business-unit agility

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Observations of CIO’s Opinions Seems to mean something different to

everyone No “Six Sigma Agility” black belts yet Same word means different things to

different people confusion invariably dominates the

discussion. One CIO’s “agility” is another CIO’s

“workaround”

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First & Final Analysis

Agility is about timely & cost-effective implementation

Agility means action implies both the capacity & capability to act doesn’t mean it has to instantaneously act or

react — only that it has the power to do so

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Characteristics of Agility

Creating & responding to change Nimbleness & improvisation Conformance to actual Balancing structure & flexibility

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Creating & Responding To Change

Change that causes intense pressure on competitors

Respond quickly & effectively to both anticipated & unanticipated changes in the business environment having resources, skills, knowledge,

architecture & culture in place to respond to changing business needs

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Nimbleness & Improvisation

Quickness, lightness, & nimbleness act rapidly do the minimum necessary to get a job done adapt to changing conditions

Innovation & creativity envision new products new ways of doing business

Agility requires discipline & skill

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Conformance To Actual

Control focuses on boundaries & principals rather than prescriptive, detailed procedures & processes rigid methodology vs. agile methodology

Not controlled so much by conformance to plan but by conformance to business value plans are useful as guides, but not as control

mechanisms

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Balancing Structure & Flexibility

To anticipate or to depend on resilience and responsiveness if the anticipation & planning is too

prescriptive, it leaves no room for agility without some anticipation & planning, agility

can become rudderless reaction Being agile generally means trusting in

one’s ability to respond more than trusting in one’s ability to plan

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Risks & Benefits

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1st Trait of Agile Organization

Focus on problems which require an exploratory approach due to uncertainty as uncertainty increases, the probability an

agile approach will succeed increases dramatically

agile organizations improve the odds, but they don’t guarantee success

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2nd Trait of Agile Organization

Are intensely customer driven for an IT Dept, the business typically is the

customer Advocate putting the customer in control

business driven IT

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3rd Trait of Agile Organization

Focus on people individual skills collaboration, conversations, &

communications that enhance flexibility & innovation

physical environment & culture of IT Dept impacts opens, i.e., hallway conversations

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4th Trait of Agile Organization

Are not about a laundry list of things that organizations should do are about the practical things an IT Dept

actually needs to do IT methodology can enhance or hamper an

IT Dept’s agility ERP’s are typically are about strong

structure, process & rigidity – not very agile

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5th Trait of Agile Organization

Agile organizations may be inefficient part of the cost of agility is mistakes, which

are caused by having to make decisions in an environment of uncertainty

business and IT Dept must be accepting of a certain amount of mistakes

may take several attempts to get it right

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Exercise

What would an agile IT Department look like in terms of: culture organizational structure architecture & Technology methodology resources

Rationalize each of your options/solutionsPresent findings to class

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Support for Agile IT

IT working closely with business Training of IT staff to gain knowledge &

skills Methodologies to instil discipline but not

bureaucracy Budgeting for agility Agile technology architecture IT Vendor providing agile support

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Some Thoughts to Remember

Agile organizations are not just about architecture, it’s about people

Agile does not mean ad-hoc, it’s about working within a defined set of boundaries and rules

Agile is being an ‘explorer’ who seeks out innovative ways to achieve an end knowing their strengths, weaknesses and limits

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Agile IT for Agile Business

Everyone in IT has to understand the business inside and out

Agility has to be the mantra of the company at large

IT department must foster flexibility and responsiveness across all disciplines

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Does Agility Work in All Situations?

Works best in a fast changing environment and/or an environment of uncertainty

Culture of an organization must be accepting of an agile approach accepting of risk accepting of mistakes focused on business value, not the process

of control

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In Summary

Agile IT and organizations are focused on people and their ability to respond.

Is being agile a ‘flash in the pan’ or is it something here to stay?

In the Right Situations!!!

Right environment, right people, right resources, it is a viable approach.

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Bibliography

“Agile Software Development Ecosystems”By Jim Highsmith

CIO Magazine (Aug 15, 2004)

http://www.cio.com/archive/081504/ “Response Ability: The Language, Structure,

and Culture of the Agile Enterprise”By Rick Dove

Manifesto for Agile Software Development - http://agilemanifesto.org/