The main problem of business agility

AN IDENTIFIED PROBLEM

The business and IT are not quite synced, a certain gap or dysfunction between them: one does not like change the other thrives in uncertainty. They do not speak the same lingo nor they try to understand each other.

A POSSIBLE SOLUTION

How about if a dialog is attempted, attending to the communication between both sides via a double loop of needs and outcomes:

  • the business expresses their needs in a clear way so IT can understand and deliver value against these: needs are fulfilled through dialog, ownership and commitment.
  • IT, upon understanding the business needs, expresses their own needs to the business in order to deliver value: needs are fulfilled via clarification, facilitation and feedback.

IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION

What links the business and IT is the value stream, both are integral parts, hence breaking down the double loop of needs and outcomes into elements of the value stream (i.e. portfolio, product, devops, release) would facilitate the communication between the parts as these become responsible of a smaller part of the business value:

  • portfolio responsible for the business backlog,
  • product responsible for the product backlogs,
  • devops responsible for building and delivering value increments,
  • release responsible for bundling value and making it available to the market.

THE RESULT

We get a series of double loops between portfolio and product, between product and devops, between devops and release, and so on. This enables communication and understanding among adjacent parts of the value stream.

Hence we bridge the gap between Business and IT through the value stream.

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Author: Mario Aiello

Hi, I’m Mario – a retired agility warrior from a major Swiss bank, beyond agile explorer, lean thinker, former rugby player, and wishful golfer. What frustrates me most? Poor agile adoption, illusionary scaling, and the lack of true business agility. I believe agility should fit purpose, context, and practice – and continuously evolve. Active in the agile space since 2008, my consulting journey began in 2012, helping a digital identity unit adopt Scrum at team level. That work led to the design of an Agile Operating System for the entire organization. Today, as an independent consultant, I help organizations unlock sustainable agility – guided by adaptive intelligence: sensing challenges, learning fast, and adapting with purpose.