The data-driven Agile transformation: introduction

Recently we, at Agile Cockpit, launched my first whitepaper: the data-driven Agile transformation.

In this whitepaper, I take a look at the current status of many of the change initiatives within organizations. A large number of organizations are currently involved in some sort of Agile transformation. And that's a good thing, because the world keeps changing at a faster pace and organizations want to be able to adapt. Even if your organization is still in a slower environment, you still want to have the luxury of being able to adapt quickly when necessary.

The problem with many change initiatives though is that they tend to fail. John Kotter has done research which indicates that well over 50% of all change initiatives fail. That's a shockingly high number.

In my whitepaper I propose a different transformation approach: a data-driven approach. A data-driven approach, if done well, should take down the failure rate of change initiatives considerably as it always gives you and indication on how the change initiative is doing. Even more so, it allows you to inspect and adapt the transformation frequently, making the transformation itself more agile as well. That, in turn, should increase the chance of success even more.

10 journeys

In my whitepaper I put forward 10 primary focus journeys (and KPI) to lead a data-driven Agile transformation. Over the next 10 weeks I will be elaborating on each of those in a series of blog posts.

These are the 10 primary focus journeys for a data-driven Agile transformation:

1. Team engagement: is the agile transformation improving people’s engagement and involvement in the organization’s goals?
2. Velocity: is the agile transformation improving the pace at which your teams deliver software?
3. Customer engagement: is the agile transformation improving your customers’ involvement?
4. Time-to-market: is the agile transformation improving how quickly can you deliver value to your customer?
5. Alignment: is the agile transformation improving everyone’s alignment to your organization’s and department’s goals?
6. Cost of delay: is the agile transformation improving decision-making related to what it costs not to do something?
7. Software quality: is the agile transformation improving the quality of your software?
8. Value delivery: is the agile transformation improving the amount of time spent on delivering value and on minimizing time spent on distractions?
9. Return on investment: is the agile transformation improving how much money you earn related to an investment?
10. Enterprise agility: can an organization quickly respond to (changes in) market and/or customer demand?

I'll be working these out in this order. Naturally, any feedback is more than welcome.

Would you like to know more about this topic or would you like to discuss it with us? Please reach out to me.