All delivery systems create value for customers. In a Predictable & Agile Delivery system, 'value' flows:
Managers who know how to achieve this optimise delivery systems continually. Improvement is done efficiently, by collaborating with delivery teams and removing obstacles to performance.
The crucial challenge for knowledge work is quality. A new software feature may pass QA and HR may hire the best candidate for a role, but these are subjective. In reality, these processes are rarely documented and often badly flawed. Of course, people do their best under these conditions. Yet the result is inconsistent outputs and problems that have to be corrected later. The costs saved today are wiped out in re-work and apologising to customers, later.
Lean techniques are particularly good for increasing efficiency and Agile for improving adaptability. They need to balance though, because one is good for production at scale, the other for exploring new designs and solutions.
Both are tried and tested approaches that maximise operational effectiveness.
The journey to achieving predictable and agile delivery is shorter and faster than you think.
Prioritisation resolves tensions and diverse demands by clarifying what matters most, right now:
Prioritisation helps people make decisions, at all levels.
Managers were written-out of the Agile movement yet they are crucial for improving Business Agility, by:
Technology managers support developers, who are "uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it."
Improving organisation-wide agility depends on managers at every level. Their curiosity and willingness to explore is crucial. Improvement emerges in its way, not from projects or plans.
The guiding principle is 'inspect and adapt'. Change the smallest thing you do now that could be done better. I guarantee you will look back and notice the transformation.
Today’s challenge is that traditional management approaches, where managers tell people what to do and how to do it, are not as effective as they once were. Agile transformation takes years, but changing management’s focus from people to tensions could be a better solution. It is simpler, faster, and considerably more cost-effective. Management is the […]
We have some mid-tier consultants in at the moment who are "focussing on culture." Since we don't separate culture from delivering value to customers, I asked what that meant in practice. Apparently: "A generic scheme of manoeuvre could involve a diagnostic that looks at things like empowerment, psychological safety, collaboration, purpose, customer centricity… then based […]
There’s a quiet revolution going-on right now fueled by people’s expectations of work and productivity. Everyone has a fantastic user experience with their devices and apps at home, and see no reason not to have the same at work. If Agile is about steady transformation, “big bang” is big risk As the next generation take-on […]
