Steps to implement agile ways of working at large scale organisations

It is a challenge when you want to implement any major change in large scale organisations because the change needs to happen from top to bottom. It will be a larger challenge to implement the Agile ways of working as this requires multiple major changes (not just one change) i.e. leadership behavioural changes, process changes, governance changes, structural changes, and a change in mindset from delivering products (can be goods or services) to delivering customer values at a rapid speed. 

There are several challenges that go into making these changes. For example, middle-level management don’t believe in it, attitude issues (i.e. why change when things are already working?), negative thinking (i.e. it would not work for our organisation), business and suppliers (like IT) work in silos, manage and control attitude, etc.

These are the steps to implement agile delivery or ways of working across an organisation:

1.      The fundamental reason for agile delivery is shrinking the “time to market” of products and increased innovation demands from customers; if this is phrased at CEO/CFO levels, the reason for agile delivery is to deliver customer values before competitors do and generate more revenue and profit for their organisation. If an organisation is to be successful in implementing agile delivery/ways of working, the CEO/CFO needs to provide direction or KPI (in financial terms) to his/her management in order to deliver customer values at a faster pace. 

If this message or KPI is not communicated, the business may not take the initiative to drive agile delivery, and IT cannot work by itself to make this happen. Thus, this is the first and fundamental step in introducing agile delivery across the organisation.

2.      The portfolio governance should give importance to delivering incremental values and thereafter, the business case approval process should be structured accordingly.

3.      There are several agile methodologies in the industry – the business and IT need to review and adopt the best approach for their organisation to meet their KPIs (set by CEO/CFO).

4.      The PMO has to define the processes and governance, then organise training and awareness across the organisation.

5.      HR has to organise training sessions on cultural changes. For example, how to work collaboratively between IT and Business, and change in mindset from delivering products to customer values, improve transparency, change autocracy to servant-leadership behaviour.

6.      Structural changes are required so that IT and Business can work together and share accountability on delivering values – this will enhance collaboration and remove hierarchies and layers of management.

7.      Since we are moving from “manage and control” to “collaboration and trust”, new roles and responsibilities are to be defined.

8.      Senior managers from business and IT should build one team culture by co-locating both teams and organising team building activities.

9.      Celebrate and communicate wins to improve confidence and belief in agile delivery.

It may take 9 to 12 months to implement agile ways of working across an organisation. If an organisation achieves its targeted KPIs, then fine tune it further to achieve higher goals.

Going Agile is a game changer, and the investments you make in setting the foundation for a successful journey will reap huge rewards in shrinking the “time to market” of products and meet the increased innovation demands from their customers, in turn generating more revenue to the organisation, and job satisfaction for their employees.

Questions, suggestions, and comments are most welcome

Author: Ravi Shankar, Telstra Corporation Ltd