The Agility Philosophy: Understanding Winning Ways

1. The Agility Philosophy: Understanding Winning Ways Clayton Long ISP IT Management Consultant Corvelle Management Consultants

2. Learning Objectives • Articulate the components of an agile organization and IT Dept • Identify the traits of an agile organization and IT Dept

3. Clay’s Background • Been in Business for 26 years • 18 years in Information Technology • From field to the boardroom • originally Power Systems Electrician • began IT in 1984 • Management Systems Analyst • Consulted with DMR - Senior Project Manager • Director of IT at ENMAX • Senior Management Consultant - Corvelle

4. Pace of Change • Pace of change continues to move faster, less time to react to change • Organizations able to react and adapt to change quickly will be the most successful • Being agile helps organizations respond to changes more quickly

5. Changes Impacting Business • Market fragmentation • Competition pressures • Corporate reorganization frenzy • Industry/regulatory environment churn • Technology evolution • Shrinking product lifetimes • Information capacity to treat masses of customers as individuals

6. Problem - Solution If turbulence and turmoil define the problem, then agility is key to the solution.

7. Definition of Agile • Marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace • Mentally quick and resourceful Source - Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

8. Agility in Business The ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent business environment. The ability to rapidly change direction and to shift focus and resources from areas of low return to areas of high return.

9. Agile Company For a company, to be agile is to be capable of operating profitably in a competitive environment of continually, and unpredictably, changing business opportunities.

10. Agile Individual For an individual, to be agile is to be capable of contributing to the bottom line of a company that is constantly reorganizing its human and technological resources in response to unpredictably changing business opportunities.

11. Is Agility More Than Just Architecture? • Perception is that agility comes from technology architecture • Corporate culture & attitude has an enormous impact on a company’s agility

12. CIO’s On Agile IT Depts • Constant whitewater requires just-in-time program development & rapid application of resources to emerging problems & opportunities • Greater centralization vs. greater decentralization & delegation • Ever-exquisite responsiveness to business needs • Inspire & enable greater business-unit agility

13. Observations of CIO’s Opinions • Seems to mean something different to everyone • No “Six Sigma Agility” black belts yet • Same word means different things to different people • confusion invariably dominates the discussion. • One CIO’s “agility” is another CIO’s “workaround”

14. First & Final Analysis • Agility is about timely & cost-effective implementation • Agility means action • implies both the capacity & capability to act • doesn’t mean it has to instantaneously act or react — only that it has the power to do so

15. Characteristics of Agility • Creating & responding to change • Nimbleness & improvisation • Conformance to actual • Balancing structure & flexibility

16. Creating & Responding To Change • Change that causes intense pressure on competitors • Respond quickly & effectively to both anticipated & unanticipated changes in the business environment • having resources, skills, knowledge, architecture & culture in place to respond to changing business needs

17. Nimbleness & Improvisation • Quickness, lightness, & nimbleness • act rapidly • do the minimum necessary to get a job done • adapt to changing conditions • Innovation & creativity • envision new products • new ways of doing business • Agility requires discipline & skill

18. Conformance To Actual • Control focuses on boundaries & principals rather than prescriptive, detailed procedures & processes • rigid methodology vs. agile methodology • Not controlled so much by conformance to plan but by conformance to business value • plans are useful as guides, but not as control mechanisms

19. Balancing Structure & Flexibility • To anticipate or to depend on resilience and responsiveness • if the anticipation & planning is too prescriptive, it leaves no room for agility • without some anticipation & planning, agility can become rudderless reaction • Being agile generally means trusting in one’s ability to respond more than trusting in one’s ability to plan

20. Risks & Benefits

21. 1st Trait of Agile Organization • Focus on problems which require an exploratory approach due to uncertainty • as uncertainty increases, the probability an agile approach will succeed increases dramatically • agile organizations improve the odds, but they don’t guarantee success

22. 2nd Trait of Agile Organization • Are intensely customer driven • for an IT Dept, the business typically is the customer • Advocate putting the customer in control • business driven IT

23. 3rd Trait of Agile Organization • Focus on people • individual skills • collaboration, conversations, & communications that enhance flexibility & innovation • physical environment & culture of IT Dept impacts opens, i.e., hallway conversations

24. 4th Trait of Agile Organization • Are not about a laundry list of things that organizations should do • are about the practical things an IT Dept actually needs to do • IT methodology can enhance or hamper an IT Dept’s agility • ERP’s are typically are about strong structure, process & rigidity – not very agile

25. 5th Trait of Agile Organization • Agile organizations may be inefficient • part of the cost of agility is mistakes, which are caused by having to make decisions in an environment of uncertainty • business and IT Dept must be accepting of a certain amount of mistakes • may take several attempts to get it right

26. Exercise What would an agile IT Department look like in terms of: • culture • organizational structure • architecture & Technology • methodology • resources Rationalize each of your options/solutions Present findings to class

27. Support for Agile IT • IT working closely with business • Training of IT staff to gain knowledge & skills • Methodologies to instil discipline but not bureaucracy • Budgeting for agility • Agile technology architecture • IT Vendor providing agile support

28. Some Thoughts to Remember • Agile organizations are not just about architecture, it’s about people • Agile does not mean ad-hoc, it’s about working within a defined set of boundaries and rules • Agile is being an ‘explorer’ who seeks out innovative ways to achieve an end knowing their strengths, weaknesses and limits

29. Agile IT for Agile Business • Everyone in IT has to understand the business inside and out • Agility has to be the mantra of the company at large • IT department must foster flexibility and responsiveness across all disciplines

30. Does Agility Work in All Situations? • Works best in a fast changing environment and/or an environment of uncertainty • Culture of an organization must be accepting of an agile approach • accepting of risk • accepting of mistakes • focused on business value, not the process of control

31. In Summary Agile IT and organizations are focused on people and their ability to respond. Is being agile a ‘flash in the pan’ or is it something here to stay? In the Right Situations!!! Right environment, right people, right resources, it is a viable approach.

32. Bibliography • “Agile Software Development Ecosystems” By Jim Highsmith • CIO Magazine (Aug 15, 2004) http://www.cio.com/archive/081504/ • “Response Ability: The Language, Structure, and Culture of the Agile Enterprise” By Rick Dove • Manifesto for Agile Software Development - http://agilemanifesto.org/