3 Practical Ways Agile Makes Work Better and Faster (if done right)
Agile has been a big part of the tech community for a few years now. The main idea behind agile is that it enables responsive project planning and execution. Agile is an adaptable and flexible way of working and there are many benefits to using it. One of the most important benefits to using agile is the ability to get your work delivered faster. It allows for incremental software releases and improves speed to market.
What is agile?
Agile is a set of principles and practices for developing and delivering high-quality software and other products and services in a fast and flexible manner. It is based on the Agile Manifesto, a set of values and principles that prioritize individuals and interactions, working solutions, and customer collaboration over processes and tools.
Agile approaches are iterative and incremental, meaning that they involve the continuous delivery of small, incremental changes or improvements to a product or service. This allows organizations to quickly respond to changing customer needs and market conditions, and to deliver value to customers more quickly.
Agile approaches are also collaborative and involve close communication and collaboration among team members and stakeholders. This can help to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals and that any challenges or issues are identified and addressed early on.
Agile approaches are used in a variety of contexts, including software development, project management, and product development. Some of the most commonly used Agile methodologies include Scrum, Lean, and Kanban.
By adopting Agile practices and principles, organizations can be more flexible and responsive, and better able to deliver high-quality products and services to customers.
What can agile do for your business?
Agile is a process that has changed the way that many organizations develop software. It is a process that takes place over a period of sprints. In order to make agile work for your business, you need to first find out what your business needs. That’s where the business owner and the team come in. They need to sit down, talk about what agile can do for the business, and figure out what the problems are. Once the problems are defined, the team can start working on solutions. The three most common problems that agile can solve for your business include; reducing the cost of development, improving the speed of development and improving quality.
A new study from digital.ai found the adoption of agile has increased from 37% to 86% for software development teams, and adoption has doubled for non-IT groups. Work has become more unpredictable and more volatile, necessitating greater levels of speed and flexibility in the work process and more alignment between and among teams. And companies are recognizing the power of agile to address these changes and needs.
The data from the digital.ai study demonstrate agile has the right effects: Organizations which have implemented or expanded agile have experienced an enhanced ability to manage changing priorities (70% of companies) and 52% of them have also increased their effectiveness in managing distributed teams. Almost half of companies (49%) have also reported a reduction of risk because of the ability to make quicker changes and react to shifting customer needs and market realities.
Agile Drives Adaptability
Work today requires greater adaptability. The future is more ambiguous, and the complexity of context, conditions and work has increased. The agile methods and practices prioritize responsiveness to changing conditions and eschews processes which slow things down or get in the way of progress.
The data from the digital.ai study demonstrate agile has the right effects: Organizations which have implemented or expanded agile have experienced an enhanced ability to manage changing priorities (70% of companies) and 52% of them have also increased their effectiveness in managing distributed teams. Almost half of companies (49%) have also reported a reduction of risk because of the ability to make quicker changes and react to shifting customer needs and market realities.
Agile Drives Speed and Results
The Agile Manifesto emphasizes customer needs and the release of working software which can be improved over time. As a result, agile practices help with speed and results as well. Companies which have implemented or expanded agile practices have:
Accelerated software delivery (64% of companies)
Increased team productivity (60%)
Enhanced predictability of delivery (51%)
Enhanced software quality (45%)
Increased process discipline (45%)
The results are compelling for companies and their customers, but they are also compelling for employees. When people feel like their work is effective, they tend to be more engaged.
Agile Drives Engagement
Perhaps one of the most powerful elements of the Agile Manifesto and the agile mindset is the prioritization of people. Agile values people and their experience, and puts people ahead of process. This is especially relevant today, because people’s expectations for their work have shifted. They expect more from their companies and they are demanding conditions for wellbeing, belonging and meaning. Agile makes a difference here as well.
When companies adopt agile, they report improvement in the alignment between groups within the business (66% of organizations). When people sense a line of sight from their work to the work of others and the effects on the customers, they tend to be more engaged. And this is especially important given the distributed nature of hybrid work people still need to feel connected and integral, no matter where they’re working.
Agile also affects team morale positively, according to 60% of companies. People want a sense of belonging. The work which is most rewarding, and which will engage and inspire employees is driven by teams which work well together, addressing challenges, solving problems, iterating, learning and celebrating when they succeed.
Conclusion
Overall, agile is being adopted informally with companies embracing its general concepts, and it is being adopted more formally with a variety of the established agile methods & frameworks (scrum is an example). Many companies are also adopting agile at scale, in which they are expanding agile to more departments and integrating it across the value chain.
Overall, you’ll be in good company if you choose to incorporate agile practices—and given how many companies are using agile to drive results, it may be a competitive imperative that you adopt agile.
If you are looking to implement Agile values in your organization do get in touch with us by clicking here, and learn more about how Massivue can help you reach your business goals with business agility.
