Agility That Serves the Business: Vision, Value, and Continuous Improvement

Over the years, as I’ve had the privilege of mentoring Agile coaches and Scrum Masters, I’ve observed a common trend: many focus on rigidly enforcing Agile practices, even when it doesn’t serve the broader business needs. Agile is not a checklist to be imposed at all costs—its true power lies in its flexibility and adaptability, especially when it aligns with a clear business vision.

When I work with businesses, I like to start by helping them craft a vision of what they can achieve with Agile. If they don’t already have one, I often begin with Jeff Sutherland’s goal of delivering twice the value with half the effort, or in other terms, aiming for a 400% increase in productivity. This ambitious target helps create a sense of what’s possible, while setting the foundation for a focused and meaningful Agile transformation.

From there, I help teams refine their vision into four core objectives:

1. Improving Team Morale and Psychological Safety – Agile can only flourish when teams feel safe to fail fast and learn quickly. By fostering a culture of psychological safety, we enable teams to take ownership of their development process and contribute to solutions with confidence.
2. Enhancing Customer Satisfaction and Business Transparency – Agile isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about keeping the customer at the heart of the process. Satisfied, engaged customers and clear transparency into the work being done are essential components of a successful Agile transformation.
3. Increasing Value Delivery – A key part of the Agile journey is developing a valuation process to understand and prioritize the true value of work. Empowering the Product Owner (PO) to seek out and champion this value ensures that the work being done is aligned with both business goals and customer needs.
4. Adopting Continuous Improvement – Agile is not static. It’s about continuously improving, adapting, and refining. The mantra of “fail fast, learn fast” allows teams to innovate, test ideas quickly, and embrace a cycle of growth that fuels long-term success.

To support these efforts, I created the Agility Hierarchy of Business Needs, a framework that guides businesses through the key steps to Agile adoption. Starting with keeping the business operational, progressing through delivering solutions that meet customer expectations, and ultimately reaching a true Agile mindset, this hierarchy provides a strategic roadmap for organizations to align Agile principles with real-world outcomes.

Agility is about more than implementing a framework—it's about creating a system that responds to the unique needs of your business, and it starts with a clear vision and understanding of why Agile will benefit your organization. It’s not about perfection on day one but about fostering a continuous improvement culture that evolves with the team and the business.

Now, I’d love to hear from you: What vision drives your Agile journey? Why do you think Agile matters to your business? And most importantly, how can we refine or perfect your Agile adoption process to ensure you’re delivering maximum value? Let’s discuss in the comments.

Would you like to dive deeper into Agile practices and help your teams succeed? I’ve developed a series of guides that can provide practical insights and tools to improve your Agile journey. If you’re interested in any of the following, feel free to reach out to me:

• The Definition of Assume – A guide for incorporating Continuous Improvement into retrospectives and building it into your team’s mindset.
• Writing Better Definition of Ready (DoR) – Tips for creating workable DoRs and DoDs that stretch your team while meeting objectives.
• Team Tracker – A coaching guide for tracking and accelerating team progress.
• The ABC’s of Developing a Psychologically Safe Team Environment – Tools to assess and improve psychological safety within your team.
• PO's Guide to Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) and PO's Guide to Design Thinking – Enhance your Product Ownership practices.
• Creating Teams Using the Gingerbread Method – Innovative ways to form strong, cross-functional teams.
• Scrum Time – An infographic detailing how much time teams should spend in Agile ceremonies.
• 100 Agile Games – A collection of fun, effective games to energize your team.
• The Agile Dictionary – With over 1,000 entries to help you and your team get familiar with Agile terminology.

If you’d like a copy of any of these guides or want to learn more, just drop me an email at stephen@theagilesite, and I’ll be happy to send them your way.