- One of the key process changes necessary
to spur digital transformation is Agile Development.
The term Agile was coined as part of the manifesto
for Agile software development.
The manifesto, which represented the collective wisdom
of 17 individuals, stressed individuals and interactions
over processes and tools.
Working software over comprehensive documentation.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
Responding to change over following a plan.
The hallmark of Agile Development methods
involves iteration, the means by which software
or other projects should be developed is
through rapid development, with diverse array
of disciplines brought together.
Optimally, the intended user of the product or service
ought to be involved in development as well,
as their feedback on what's working or what's not
will lead to augmentations and subtractions of functionality
throughout development.
Agile also stress face-to-face interactions where possible,
short feedback loops,
and incorporating quality practices throughout.
More standard development processes,
often referred to as waterfall development,
typically involve a serial process with many handoffs
and with quality assurance baked in only at the conclusion.
Let me give you a company example.
To bring together a diverse array of disciplines
and enable a new Agile way of working,
the Dutch financial services giant, ING,
restructured its organizations into squads, tribes,
and chapters.
Squads, the basis of the new Agile organization,
are self-steering, autonomous teams of nine people
from various functions.
Squads have end-to-end responsibilities
for achieving client-related objectives
and are dismantled when the mission is accomplished.
The product owner is a squad member,
though not a leader who is responsible
for coordinating squad activities.
Tribes are collections of squads
with inter-connected missions
with the average size being 150 people.
Each tribe has a tribe lead who is responsible
for establishing priorities, allocating the budget,
and interfacing with other tribes to ensure knowledge
and insights are shared.
Each tribe also has an Agile coach who helps individuals
and squads perform at their best.
Finally, chapters are set up across squads
and are designed to develop expertise
and knowledge across them.
Chapter leads are responsible for personal development,
coaching, and performance management.
An outgrowth of Agile practices has been the combination
of software development and software operation practices,
in what is referred to as DevOps.
A hallmark of DevOps is the incorporation of automation
and monitoring throughout the development life cycle.
Starting with scoping to development, to integration,
to testing, to releasing and deployment of the software.
This should yield a greater throughput of software
at high quality and greater value.
ING's adoption of continuous IT delivery and DevOps
significantly contributed
to them becoming the number one mobile bank
in the Netherlands.
ING significantly increased the frequency
of its software releases,
going from five or six big launches a year,
to releases every two weeks.
This was enabled in large part by the integration
of product development and IT operations into DevOps.
Although it's not mutually exclusive
from the prior process points,
change management becomes all the more important.
The one constant throughout a digital transformation
is change.
People are programmed to avoid change
as routine becomes a source of comfort.
Where change is planned,
it's important to identify the change that's coming,
the reasons for the change, and the anticipated value
to be derived from the change.
Develop a communications plan for each relevant set
of constituents, taking into consideration differences
in seniority, geography, areas of responsibility,
and the like.
Communicate early and often.
It's almost impossible to over-communicate
and this is the best way to identify anxiety
among employees or people who are resisting the change,
and take corrective action accordingly.
Develop a training program for everyone who will be impacted
by the change.
This is not an exhaustive list,
but it's a good starting point.
It's also important to develop a process
for performance management.
Defining the right metrics to gauge progress
in the digital transformation and to take corrective action
where necessary is essential.
That which gets measured gets done, after all,
so simply collecting the data and monitoring it
on a regular basis puts the organization
in a better position to ensure that the objectives
and anticipated value of digital transformation are met.
According to the 11th annual State of Agile report,
the most common metrics for measuring success
of Agile initiatives are on-time delivery, business value,
customer/user satisfaction, and product quality.
For measuring success of Agile projects,
the most common metrics are velocity, integration burndown,
and release burndown.
There are other process changes that are necessary,
but these are some of the first and more important
to put in place at the outset of your journey.
Nailing each of these will be the surest path
to longterm success.