Transformation for IT Operations – First Things First

Based on my recent training/coaching experience for Service Delivery teams on transforming them from traditional to Agile way of working, I feel the most difficult & important part has been to secure the teams’ acceptance Why & How Agile is relevant to them. In less than 5 mins into the session, I get pounded with questions like “Why is Agile Transformation necessary?”, “How is it even relevant to us?” etc. I realized that its critical to make them understand the value behind the transformation immediately rather than conveniently parking the questions by saying you will know it in subsequent slides/sessions/end of the workshop, without which getting their sustained focus was impossible.

My immediate next step was to get them excited by throwing this question, “What are the pain-points/bottle-necks that you experience in your current way of working?” and I received overwhelming responses. Now it was time to make them collaborate in groups to come up with a prioritized list. After looking at the list, I felt that if not all, but most of the issues/pain-points relate to lack of collaboration within/between Teams/Towers, Individual/Team Motivation, Monotonous work, lack of Innovation, need for Up-skill, need for "One Team" Culture etc..

Now when I started talking about Agile Mindset, Manifesto/Principles, Kanban, Culture Shift and Better Business Value, by explaining contextually how it's relevant to them, they could easily relate to pain-points in their current way of working and realized the need to shift from ‘People-led & Technology-assisted’ to ‘Technology-led & People Guided’ way of working!