Struggles of Becoming Agile
In the article given below we’ll be discussing an important topic that’s “Struggles of Becoming Agile” let’s discuss it in detail:
More and more IT companies are now compelled to shift from traditional delivery models to more Agile delivery approaches, because of the ever-shrinking timelines for delivering technical solutions. Organizations are expected to quickly make the said transition in terms of their processes, practices, tools, and techniques while being capable of delivering more with a particular number of resources or even less.
Transitioning into Agile delivery approaches isn’t any easy task. Organizations and teams tend to struggle to make the required changes. So, what exactly are some of the pertinent challenges in transitioning into Agile?
Strategic Misalignment
Now consider a plump of baby ducklings swimming in the water which is following the mother duck. The ducks will follow the mother duck following her cry quite naturally. The mother duck sets the direction and thus sets an example by leading the team. If the mother duck loses focus at any given point the little ducklings will go astray.
An IT services delivery company shifting to Agile is precisely the same. Furthermore, the strategic objectives of the organization or company must directly be linked to the tactical decision of doing delivery using Agile approaches. What usually happens is that the C-level executives suddenly hear the latest buzzwords from the industry and thus, blindly attempt to implement them within the corporate. If the leaders themselves embrace the principles and values in Agile and so motivate the staff in following the same, then the application of the new approach becomes more fruitful.
Let’s take the example of a person who worked in an organization where the CEO of the company was one of the first individuals to become a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) from the company. This ensured that the CEO himself understood the terminology and also the dynamics in following Scrum and was better able to even onboard customers to get their solutions done using an Agile delivery approach.
Receptiveness To Change
The success of any change actually depends on how receptive the individuals really are for that change. Moreover, Agile demands teams to move away from being process oriented to being much more focused on communication, collaboration, as well as continuous improvement. Organizations who have actually been used to running projects in waterfall approach with well-defined plans and with tight processes often find it difficult to move away from their comfort zone.
Agile demands merely enough documentation to execute projects and expects teams to figure out things on the go. Teams must be more hands on as well as be really prepared to experiment and also be ready to fail.
Clients too need to adapt to these changes by 1st being onboard to Agile contract types of Time & Material models and be receptive for a continuous definition of needs and ever-evolving solutions.
‘We’ vs ‘I’
One of the common problems which most of the teams have is with regards to ‘groupthink’ and also the ‘dominator’. Quite often teams tend to go with the ideas of the consenting majority even when an idea given out by one single person seems most plausible. Similarly, there can actually be one person in the group who can really be dominating and be able to influence the whole team.
Another side of this problem is where teams expect one person to be the superhero and be liable for taking up a task and completing it all by himself. This is the traditional waterfall approach where the assignee is expected to be the only owner of a task. Furthermore, agile actually begs team members to be different where people are expected to pitch in whenever a task is pending or whenever a team member is stuck and further even be able to provide a solution to take the team forward. Therefore, Agile teams are expected to be self-organizing as well as self-healing. Moreover, this requirement for change in mindset usually leaves new Agile teams scratching their heads for answers.
In conclusion, a shift from traditional approaches to Agile requires shifts within the mindsets of both employees as well as the leaders. It is often a matter of getting the fundamentals right and getting the consent of everyone to follow suit. However, often this is the toughest part in transitioning to Agile!!
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