From an agile perspective, the leadership challenge facing the organization is not necessarily to become agile themselves, but rather to comprehend the principles of agility and provide support for its implementation.
Essentially, leadership must offer clarity regarding the vision, goals, and strategy. They should identify the most important tasks, prioritize and sequence them based on value, and utilize technology by establishing acceptance criteria. Additionally, fostering self-organizing teams and creating an environment that encourages a pull on capacity is crucial. It is also important to ensure that the delivery system remains efficient and continues to progress.
To help ensure the system remains healthy, the organization should formally commit to establishing fundamental agreements:
– Focus on achieving business value by working on small Minimum Value Increments (MVIs) instead of tackling an extensive shopping list.
– Facilitate collaboration among team members to break down silos and maximize value creation.
– Emphasize abnormalities and establish a clear workflow by ensuring all tasks are visible.
– Implement feedback loops, manage technical debt, and automate processes wherever possible to create, maintain, and enhance predictability.
– Encourage a pull system and adopt a “start finishing, stop starting” philosophy to ensure work remains within capacity throughout the value stream.
– Foster a failsafe environment that emphasizes retrospection and learning, driving continuous improvement.
By comprehending the purpose behind agile adoption and the pursuit of agility, as well as the foundational principles of agile and their feasibility within the organization, a framework for establishing independent, value-creating teams becomes clearer. The focus then shifts to adopting practices that are most relevant to new approaches in value delivery, ultimately shaping a new company culture.
In summary, leadership holds the responsibility and accountability for the organization’s agility.
Agile Ways 