The journey to an agile organization

There is a growing recognition of the transformational benefits of agility in many organizations around the world. Even though it is catching fire, moving to an agile operating model is not very easy, especially for companies that are already established. There are many different ways to achieve agility and a lot of different starting points. However, the elements that we are going to talk about are all commonly shared by most of the successful agile transformations.

An agile organization will be a little different. You might have noticed that traditional organizations are built around a structural hierarchy and the departments are isolated from others. On the other hand, agile organizations can be distinguished as a network of teams working together to make decisions and learning to make things easier and simpler. Traditional organizations will have their governing body at the top of the hierarchy, and the authority to make decisions will flow down the hierarchy. Agile organizations, however, instill a shared goal and use new data or information to allow the department that is closest to the information to make the right decisions. An agile organization should be able to combine adaptability and velocity with efficiency and stability.

Transforming to an agile operating model

Any agile transformation that has to extend throughout a company or a business, will need to be both iterative and comprehensive. What comprehensive means here is that the transformation process should deal with all the elements, such as strategy, people, process, structure, people, and technology. By iterative, we mean that you will need to work on it again and again as not everything can be planned upfront. Needless to say, there are many facets to this. Let’s look at how an agile transformation can be achieved and what role it may play in an organization.

Supporting systems and tools

It is for the organization to make sure that they have the right tools to help them with an agile way of working. This should include online facilitation techniques and having the digital solutions in place to steer the organization towards a digital and agile transformation. For an organization, agility means being able to implement change, and so it is important to have tools that will allow this change, quickly, especially if you are wording remotely with distributed teams.

Letting the IT department use low code development platforms will help greatly reduce the time needed to develop and deploy business apps throughout the organization. Look for a platform where any small team can build a digital solution in a short time period in order to help drive agility.

Architecture evolution

An organization should be able to come up with a design for the evolution of enterprise architecture based on their requirements. Software requirements could evolve rapidly and regularly within an agile organization. However, it is important for the organization to have a cloud-native architecture which is inherently highly adaptable with the ability to quickly iterate on complex solutions.

Delivery pipeline

An organization must also automate their testing and integration processes as that will help with quick and continuous delivery. Think about it, if you are in a position to continuously deliver solutions quickly it will put your organization ahead of the competition in achieving digital and agile transformation.

You should be able to find a software provider online that helps organizations to maximize the speed of their delivery pipelines. The process can be made simple with the help of the right software provider.

IT infrastructure and operations

It is essential for every company or a business to ensure that they have a proper and a suitable IT infrastructure and operations to handle rapid changes. Look for a software provider that offers a complete set of integrated tools to enable the organization to manage, with minimal effort, the digital business apps that will be developed.

In today’s world, many traditional companies are starting their journey to move towards a more agile organization. Different types of organizations may experience the journey or the process differently. However, most of the organizations will require leadership aspiration, managing agility projects and a transformation blueprint. It is also very important for an organization to ensure that they scale appropriately and that they allow themselves to make improvements over time and not all of a sudden.