I have been an advisor and coach for a few big and lots of smaller Agile change /transformation programs, often working with the sponsors or executive. Over the years I have built up a list of questions that I sometimes wish I had have asked prior to putting in the time, energy, effort (blood, sweat and often tears) required to adopt Agile as a way to work. I offer my top two questions to anyone sponsoring a proposed change in their way of working. The tone I use as I ask these questions channels the voice of sceptical sponsors/executives; I do this to prompt clear and articulate answers from the people lobbying for change.
A conversation between an executive and an advocate for Agile
In the remainder of this post, I will stimulate a conversation between two people; an executive who sponsors the way of working and an advocate for changing the way of working. To start of each exchange between the two people I will pose a challenging question from the executive for the advocate to provide a response for. By doing this I am attempting to give you (whether you’re an exec or advocate) some conversation starters on where Agile makes sense to adopt within your organisation.
Question #1
The executive or sponsor asks…
“WHY should we (the organisation) and I (me as a leader) bother to change the way we work in such a drastic manner?”
Can’t we just continually improve the way we currently work now, instead of introducing all this new language and process? I have enough things I am accountable for without having my whole approach to work being up ended and my team’s work being disrupted.
A reasonable answer from the advocate might sound something like this…
If we do not change the way we currently work we greatly increase the chances of us not achieving our organisational objectives, delivering our strategy, and fulfilling our purpose. In other words, the cost of NOT changing is very high. There is data, both quantitative and qualitative supporting a case for changing the way we work. For example, it currently takes use 100 working days to deliver a small change into our customer management software system. This is due to a combination of factors including policy, process, IT management, legal, privacy and how they all currently work together. Additionally, we are losing staff because of our way of working; workforce engagement is at an all-time low and in a post-COVID world we need to refresh how employees experience work here if we expect to retain our top talent.
Question #2
The executive or sponsor asks…
“I need you to explain to me what this change will mean for our operations and if it will disrupt our current delivery plans that we have committed to”.
And what are all these additional expenses going to deliver; what are these advisors, consultants, coaches, and agile specialist doing that will deliver enough value and benefits to justify the investment I am being asked to make?
A reasonable answer might look something like this…
We will initially introduce only small changes to how we work; this will minimise disruption to delivery whilst testing our assumptions on what benefits Agile will deliver. Here’s an example of the type of data that should help us make informed decisions. It is a crude example of just one way Agile will improve the performance of our delivery system by taking waste out of our processes.
Suppose we change the way one software development team works; they adopt agile and deliver changes to the customer management software system more frequently with less wasted time. In this example the change to Agile should produce a measurable reduction in the time it takes the team to transform an idea for new functionality into a change in the software system. This in turn should result in earlier business outcomes (e.g. improved ability to segment our client database and offer the right solutions).
If I asked you to invest an additional $300k over the next 8 months for an Agile consultant to run training and embed the new way to work for the team, you at least know what to expect for the money spent to enable a change to Agile for this delivery system.
Final words and conclusion
The above examples may seem quite straight forward, but most organisations do not take the time to know WHY Agile is better than how work is delivered currently or HOW much benefit Agile will deliver. If someone is proposing a move to Agile as a way to work, try asking these two questions and see how satisfied you are with the responses.
Agile is usually going to help improve how much and how often value is delivered, but it is always prudent to do just enough analysis when building a case for change; this post aims to give you some direction on where to start.
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