5 Critical Success Factors for Agile Transformations

Last week we hosted a panel discussion on Agile. We had three excellent panelists, Patricia Remacle (SVP Product, Hobsons), Ankur Agarwal (Manager, Scrum Master, Capital One), and Jim York (Coach, Co-Owner, FoxHedge Ltd)  who provided an engaging and interesting discussion for and with our audience. In case you couldn’t be there, here are a few key takeaway points from the session that are critical to agile success:

• Agile isn’t effective when implemented in silos. The operating model of the business has to change if you want the benefits of a global optimization.
• The leadership-product conversation has to change from, “Features A,B,C in Q3” to “We’re going to fix these specific pain points, we’re not sure exactly what the user experience is yet, but we’re going to deliver something that speaks to the problem and solves it well.”
• Agile is not an excuse for not doing planning. How planning is done changes, but it is still a critical activity.
• Teams need time to form, storm, norm, perform. Change takes time and commitment.
• The only true failure is to quit and go back. Agile is optimized for discovery and learning.

Any change is hard, transformational change adds complexity on many levels. Ten Mile Square has over a decade of experience helping organizations large and small introduce and implement agile capabilities and cultures, with exponential results. Get your agile adoption going in the right direction: delivering business value. Read more on Learning Cultures: Beyond Agile and , then Contact Us.