1、24/03/2022INDEPENDEN T P U B L I C AT I O N BY#0795R AC O N T EU R.NE TCan You Face the Future?Discover how Cprime powers digital transformations for the worlds largest brands on p.18AGILE BUSINESSWHY YOURE NOT AS AGILE AS YOU THINKDIRECT LINES AGILE TRANSFORMATION0803SIX LESSONS TO LEARN FROM DEVEL

2、OPERS19R A C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S0302/agile-business-2022raconteur/raconteur_londonDistributed inAlthough this publication is funded through advertising and sponsorship,all editorial is without bias and sponsored features are clearly labelled.For an upcoming schedule,partnershi

3、p inquiries or feedback,please call+44(0)20 3877 3800 or email Raconteur is a leading publisher of special-interest content and research.Its publications and articles cover a wide range of topics,including business,finance,sustainability,healthcare,lifestyle and technology.Raconteur special reports

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5、without the prior consent of the Publisher.Raconteur Mgility has entered the lexi-con of many companies over the past two years.Once limited to a niche corner of organisations,agile has become a core competency for all types of businesses operating in an ambigu-ous and volatile environment.In the ea

6、rly days of agile,teams known as squads would comprise software developers,testers and analysts.As spelled out in the 68-word Agile Manifesto published in 2001,these squads would focus on putting customers at the heart of the delivery process and take a flexible approach to project man-agement,ensur

7、ing they were able to adapt to change rather than just stick to a plan.Many industries have since real-ised the benefits of an agile approach and are now applying it to not only survive volatility,but to stay ahead of the innovation curve.For online retailers,agile can mean rapidly rolling out updat

8、es to websites with new features or prod-uct lines.In the pharmaceutical industry,which is notorious for its slow drug discovery,squads can accelerate development time by involving customers early on in the R&D process.Manufacturers in the aerospace industry can implement agile for faster design cyc

9、les.Agile methods have also been adopted by mining and metals companies.The need to be agile has been heightened by the coronavirus pan-demic unpredictable market dynamics and supply chain disrup-tions have seen agile go from being optional to imperative.Research conducted by McKinsey in the first f

10、ew months of the pan-demic found that companies that fully adopted an agile model before the crisis started had outperformed non-agile companies.Thirty-five per cent of agile busi-ness divisions surveyed by McKinsey said that employee engagement was significantly better;33%said there was a significa

11、nt improvement in their operational performance;and 31%reported a significant uptick in customer satisfaction.But the urgency for agility has also seen more and more companies claiming to be agile without fully understanding what it means.Its more than iteration cycles and teams holding daily stand-

12、up meetings.Being agile requires an organisation-al shift that can deliver efficiencies across an entire business.Agile teams work best when theyre in the same location in close-knit groups.This in-person contact helps to build trust,leads to faster decision-making and improves problem-solving.But t

13、he pandemic meant companies had to abruptly transition to remote working.Those businesses that were already operating in an agile envi-ronment would have been well pre-pared to react to the disruption.But companies that decided to adopt an agile approach as a result of the pan-demic may have had a c

14、ulture shock.“Agile involves significant and challenging cultural shifts within an organisation and,from an employees point of view,it demands a considerable change of habits,”says Tim El-Sheikh,chief executive of tech development stu-dio Nebuli and a former software consultant advising on how to im

15、plement agile methods.“We tend to just stay within our bubbles unless forced to make changes to working practices,as weve seen during the pandemic,”he says.“These comfort zones need to be broken if businesses are to achieve successful agility.”Rich McEachranMartin Barraud via GettyImagesCompanies li

16、ke Amazon,ANZ and Spotify are agile because they dont have embedded cultures to changeSophia Akram Freelance journalist with an interest in foreign policy and global development featured in Al Jazeera,Vice and other outlets.Peter ArcherAuthor and journalist,he is a former staffer on the Press Associ

17、ation national news agency and was a consultant for NBC in America.Adrian BridgwaterSpecialist author on software engineering and application development,he is a regular contributor to Forbes and Computer Weekly.Alison ColemanWriter and senior contributor at Forbes,with articles published in The Gua

18、rdian and Business and Management magazine.Morag Cudde-ford-JonesBusiness journalist with 20+years experience delving into evolving topics covering major commercial and transformation issues.Sam Haddad Journalist specialising in travel,with work published in The Guardian,1843 Magazine and The Times.

19、Rich McEachranFreelance journalist covering the intersection of business,technology and sustainability for publications including The Guardian and Wired,as well as B2B titles.ContributorsAGILE BUSINESSHow to make the leap to a truly agile businessThe pandemic forced many businesses to adopt agile me

20、thods,but being truly agile is about more than stand-up meetings and iteration cyclesS T R AT E GYCampaign manager Joana RuffleDesign/production assistant Louis NassDesignKellie JerrardCelina LuceyColm McDermottSamuele MottaSean Wyatt-LivesleyDesign directorTim WhitlockIllustrationSara GelfgrenDeput

21、y editorFrancesca CassidyManaging editorSarah VizardSub-editorNeil ColeReports editorIan DeeringHead of productionJustyna OConnellAChris Stokel-WalkerTechnology and culture journalist and author,with bylines in The New York Times,The Guardian and Wired.Published in association withR A C O N T E U R.

22、N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S0504sees teams work on different phases of a project simultaneously,using data and knowledge-sharing to accelerate decision-making.“Companies like Amazon,ANZ and Spotify are agile because they dont have embedded cultures to change.Companies that have a long history of w

23、aterfall delivery face a very dif-ferent set of challenges because agile uproots their more traditional ways of working.”So says Mivy James,dig-ital transformation director at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.Making the switch to being agile isnt straightforward,adds James,and this is where agile co

24、aches come in.They can teach C-suite executives what to expect from an agile approach,as well as help them understand how change should be governed and how rapid transformation should be deliv-ered within an organisation that usually works within a different set of processes.For an agile approach to

25、 be suc-cessful,it is essential to create buy-in among C-level executives.Leadership teams are the ones who effectively set the tone for the rest of any organisation and agile requires all stakeholders to place trust in this process.Companies must also be prepared for an ele-ment of chaos,says Pries

26、tley,as ideas and designs are tweaked throughout successive iterations.Agile and remote working may seem incompatible,given that the premise of agile is based on regular face-to-face conversations to exchange infor-mation and deliver results quickly.Electronic communication can lead to misunderstand

27、ings as non-verbal cues can be difficult to read,and it can be hard to replicate the feeling of in-person camaraderie.With remote working blurring the line between personal and working lives,being respectful of team members boundaries is essential if managers want to recreate the same level of team

28、bonding that typically happens in an office.Companies need to revise the ground rules for communication to avoid team members talking over each other and to reduce back-and-forth.Using tools such as virtual whiteboards can help to avoid confu-sion and capture the collective view.And theres a need to

29、 be mindful of the fact that some team members may not want to always have their camera turned on during virtual meetings.Managing agile team members is all about good leadership.The pandemic may have shown that companies dont need a full in-house tech team to be truly agile,but agile cant be imple-

30、mented successfully without an in-house agile coach,says Jonathan Priestley,head of portfolio moderni-sation at IRIS Software Group.The agile coach isnt a technical role but a valuable one for encourag-ing those in leadership positions to embrace agile methods and over-come resistance.A survey by Fo

31、rbes Insight and the Scrum Alliance found that 87%of executives polled viewed the CEO as the key propo-nent of organisational agility.Long-time employees can be the biggest detractors and stand in the way of agile being adopted.Bringing an agile coach into the fold is particularly important for comp

32、anies that have traditionally relied on whats known as waterfall delivery.Under this linear system projects are worked on one phase at a time,with decisions made from the top down.The agile method Its critical that all the people within an organisation accept and embrace the change to ensure agile i

33、s a successCommercial featureWhen we build teams,we build them with our clients.It is a shared commitment to a shared problemigital transformation holds the promise of greater busi-ness agility.However,as more companies invest,it appears that the rewards are falling short.Why is this the case?There

34、are great examples around us of digital native success stories demonstrating agility,but what we see elsewhere can be hard to replicate in our own organisations.From seeing to doing therein lies the challenge.AND Digital,a company that works with organisations to accelerate their dig-ital delivery,b

35、elieves it has identified a unique set of attributes that organi-sations need to adopt to make mean-ingful progress towards agility and set about putting them to work,with impressive results.AND began its jour-ney in 2014 with 33 ANDIs and two cli-ents.By the end of 2021,the companys portfolio stood

36、 at 1,200 ANDIs across seven UK cities as well as Amsterdam.“When we set up AND Digital in 2014,we set about understanding and dis-tilling the essence of what determines success in our increasingly fast-paced,technology-driven world.Since then,we have purposefully implemented the patterns,ways of op

37、erating,capabil-ities and mindset to build and scale,”explains Paramjit Uppal,founder of AND Digital.Uppal continues:“We refer to this as the Essence of the AND.Increasingly,we are living in an and not or world.Or is no longer a viable strategy for organisations.We need to be good,for example,at bot

38、h experience design and engineering.At the core of this essence is our people.We work very hard to build and nurture a mindset and capabilities to enable high perfor-mance.This investment has delivered great speed and agility for us.”People are the key to agilityA gap in capabilities and skills is s

39、till holding companies back from the agility they need to realise their digital ambitionsAND now applies this knowledge and strategic approach to clients,working with them to accelerate their immediate digital needs and support-ing them in building their in-house capabilities.This is all in the face

40、 of the well-publicised challenge of the digital skills gap.“The digital skills gap is front and centre of our con-cerns,but its not new and has been a challenge for more than a decade,”Uppal explains.“Governments and corporates are undertaking various initiatives to try and deal with the issue.But

41、what we see is there isnt a joined-up approach,”Uppal adds.“Education,industry,and the government are all doing something to help solve the dig-ital skills gap,but in silos.Funding is also disparate.This is a make or break challenge for organisations of all sec-tors and for society at large if were

42、to secure growth for the future.“Our approach,therefore,is all about collaboration.When we build teams,we build them with our clients.It is a shared commitment to a shared problem.AND itself is a great exem-plar of what can be achieved in the so-called AND world when the right patterns,culture and m

43、indsets are harnessed.Whats more,there is no better way for clients to access these for themselves than by working and doing so alongside us.”Uppal also believes the digital skills gap is an often misunderstood topic.“To some commentators,the skills gap is specifically about coding or data skills,or

44、 STEM.To others,it is purely an expression of not having enough people to complete tasks in the short term.For us,it is about having that essential skill mix,mind-set,and the right practices in place these having made AND itself suc-cessful.Its these vital attributes that we actively encourage and s

45、upport our clients to adopt.”However people understand it,the gap is broadly accepted to be widen-ing.In 2021 alone,AND Digital claims that it upskilled more than 10,000 people with the requisite skills and knowledge to thrive in an increasingly digital world.“This might feel like a drop in the ocea

46、n but we are confi-dent that we have a unique approach to the skills gap,”says Uppal.Focusing on ANDs corporate mis-sion to help close the digital skills gap,Uppal concludes:“We are calling on businesses and organisations across the UK to join us in tackling this major challenge together.We will be

47、work-ing on ways to scale these approaches and to work with organisations and society to make a real difference.”For more information,visit and.digital/skillsDeter Drucker once said,“the only sustainable com-petitive advantage is a companys ability to keep trans-forming itself.”This is sound advice,

48、but its not that simple for most companies.Many companies struggle to succeed with even one transformation,let alone living up to Druckers more continuous and agile transformation vision.According to McKinsey,a global consulting firm that deals with busi-ness and management,70%of trans-formations fa

49、il to achieve their goals.This number holds true with agile transformations as well.The most common problem in agile adoption efforts is treating it as a business process update and forget-ting that agile is not just a processits a culture.This mistake sets the entire transformation up for failure b

50、ecause it doesnt address the criti-cal cultural,management,organisa-tional,and technological challenges that an agile transformation faces.Company culture is much larger than just a set of written values hung on a conference room wall or pub-lished on a website.These values govern interactions betwe

51、en people,departments,and customers when practised.With its customer-centric values and principles,agile is often used to enhance or reinforce existing company values.A companys values are a power-ful source of energy when they shift.In fact,it can be a significant force in transforming the whole co

52、mpany culture.A great example of this was in 2014 when Satya Nadella,who was new to his CEO position at Microsoft,took a move to focus the companys vision and mission in a more people-centric and,in my opinion,agile way of work.The shift was from what he called a“know-it-all”culture of individualism

53、 to a team culture that was focused to“empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more.”Now,almost a decade later,through embracing Nadellas vision,the company has improved employ-ee satisfaction and turned decades of cutthroat aggression into a more agile attitude of productive

54、collabo-ration between employees,manage-ment,and customers.This was an inspiring transformation,and it had a massive impact on all levels of the company,its customers,and its profitability.It would have been impossible without the support of transformational leadership from the top levels of the org

55、anisation.Leadership sets the tone for employees to follow.How leaders behave ultimately translates into how employees behave.This was perhaps the most critical ingredient to Nadellas success at Microsoft.He reinforced the new company values not by telling people what to do,but by becoming an exampl

56、e for others.For example,he did not preach to others about the need for empathy,time management,or learning;he modelled that himself.In his book,Hit Refresh,he outlines how he believes being accessible to every person on his staff is crucial for a healthy workspace.Putting those words and sentiments

57、 into action is what makes it transformative.This leadership style is vital for an agile or any other cultural transfor-mation to be successful.Transforma-tive leaders are able to motivate their team by living the values themselves and not just promoting them.It gives legitimacy and importance to th

58、e team,making it much easier to shift the norms and behaviours that may hold a transformation back.What we learn from Drucker and Nadella is that transformations are a continuous journey.For Drucker,transformation is a process of con-stant renewal.This is the idea that we must continually change and

59、 innovate to stay competitive in the marketplace.Nadella showed us to lead by example and to work in a transformative way.Transforma-tion is not something you do for a few months or years and then stop.It is something that you practice doing every day within your company at all levelsand it starts w

60、ith culture and it starts at the top.The most common problem in agile adoption efforts is forgetting that agile is not just a process its a culture.PI N S I G H T SRay Arellchief of innovation&business development at Agile Alliance2021 was the year of the billionaire blast off between Jeff Bezos,Ric

61、hard Branson and Elon Musk.But its the latter of the three that is arguably winning the space race.SpaceX has proved that a dose of agile is just as important as rocket science when it comes to getting spacecraft off the ground.Musks first ever venture was software firm Zip2 and hes since gone on to

62、 apply the principles of agile software development to hardware particularly the concept of fail fast including at Tesla.Instead of designing a single prototype,building it and then testing it(think:a waterfall system approach to engineering),SpaceX builds multiple prototypes at the same time.These

63、are then tested Agility and the food and drink industry may seem like chalk and cheese,given how rigid and regulated the industry can be.But supply chain shortages during the pandemic have only served to emphasise the need for manufacturers to be nimble.Unilevers adoption of agile methods is a prime

64、 example of how non-tech companies can success-fully implement agile methods.Prior to coronavirus,Unilevers refreshment division in the Benelux region had decided to adopt an agile approach back in 2019.The decision was taken in order to enhance the product development phase and shorten SpaceX:Agile

65、 is rocket fuel for tech companiesBenelux offers food for thought on agilerapidly and improvements are made to designs based on feedback and lessons learned.As a NASA report put it:“SpaceX focuses on rapidly iterating through a build-test-learn approach that drives modifica-tions toward design matur

66、ity.”This agile approach has meant that SpaceX has managed to establish a first-mover advantage in the space race.Rapid prototyping has also helped the spacecraft manufacturer to lower production costs,while continuous improvement and innovation will lower the price of future rocket launches.The adv

67、ertised price for launching its Falcon 9 rockets is currently in the region of$30m(22.8m)but Musk said in February that the aim is to bring it down to under$10m over the next few years.the time it takes to bring new products to market.Employees were split into several teams and discussions with team

68、 members led to pain points being identified.The result was more focus and fewer distractions.In late 2020,almost a year after adopting an agile ap-proach,the Benelux division reported a 25%growth in its project capacity and an improved time to market.Employees reported a decrease in pressure,with 8

69、5%of team members saying they were happy with the agile methods implemented.Eighty-four per cent experienced improved focus and 92%said they would recommend the agile way of working to other colleagues.“If agile is to flourish,businesses need to be open to changes in oper-ational thinking.Even tech

70、teams with deep experience of agile methods struggle when the envi-ronment isnt aligned to their ways of working.This can create a nega-tive unhealthy environment if issues arent addressed,”he adds.El-Sheikh agrees:“It is critical that all the people within an organisa-tion accept and embrace the ch

71、ange to ensure agile is a success.”BAE Systems James argues that agile can only truly deliver on its promises if a companys culture and all of its communications are agile across the board.“If an agile part of an enterprise comes into contact with a part that is following the process but doesnt have

72、 an agile culture,the business gearbox has to work harder,”she says.Getting the culture right helps to attract talent that fits the agile model.But it is just as crucial to invest in the development and pro-gression of your existing workforce,says Hadas Mor-Feldbau,global director of human resources

73、 at workflow management software company M.“Once you help people to hone their skills,you can allow them to become part of the agile solution,”she says.“Empowering people to have more ownership and impact will help companies to create and retain a more agile workforce.”While technology teams might b

74、e expected to be comfortable with the method from the get-go,some employees will need support as they get used to the approach,says Priest-ley.Still,it is important to remem-ber that agile is by no means a panacea and that not all business functions are suitable candidates for agile methods.“While t

75、he principles of agile done properly are always going to be the same,it is going to look different from organisation to organisation.A 5,000-person company will have to approach agile in a completely dif-ferent way to a 15-person company,”Priestley concludes.HOW EMBRACING AGILE HELPED FIRMS WEATHER

76、COVIDSelf-assessed performance of business units who had fully adopted an agile model before Covid,compared with units within their organisation who had not(numbers may not add up to 100 due to rounding)McKinsey,2020JIM WATSON/Contributor via GettyImagesPeter Boer/Bloomberg via Getty Images31%35%33%

77、62%41%60%8%24%7%Significantly betterCustomer satisfactionEmployee engagementOperational performanceBetterAbout the sameR A C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S0706Commercial featureor many businesses,adopt-ing an agile strategy is often touted as a revolution-ary decision that can overhaul t

78、heir operations.Its seen as a surefire solution that promises transforma-tional results,until it doesnt.Too often,businesses who hope to reju-venate the way they work through an agile strategy end up spending plenty of time,effort and money to achieve very little.The reasons for that are varied,but

79、at their core,they often come down to a single problem.“People dont understand what agile is for,”says Andrew Husak,vice president of prod-uct architecture at Emergn,a global digital business services firm with a mission to improve the way people and companies work.“They look to it as a way of fixin

80、g a number of business problems with outcomes focused on the promise of better,faster,more,when what theyre actually solving for is uncer-tainty.Basically,agile is applied to the wrong problems.Companies are focused on funding short-term projects,competing for budgets and maintaining a culture of co

81、n-trol,when the solutions lie in fund-ing long-term capability,investing in value propositions and cultivating a culture of empowerment.”are prioritising the most valuable work through that lens.Thats how it should be done.But many businesses struggle to adopt agility to its fullest potential becaus

82、e they focus on projects versus prod-ucts as part of their attempt to govern for certainty,rather than the uncer-tainty embraced by an agile approach.They think they know what their cus-tomers want and need from them,without processes for reaching out to them through experimentation to solicit feedb

83、ack.And that lack of feed-back coming in leaves them unable to adapt and evolve over time to meet the changing needs of their customers.All of those issues stem from leader-ship either misunderstanding or mis-applying the agile framework to their business.The genesis of agile from software developme

84、nt was intended to be radical,but that requires plenty of trust from brave leadership.“Its a complete upending of your attitude to how your business actually exists and needs to continue to exist.This is usu-ally something that requires continually investing in people and extending their knowledge b

85、eyond the status quo;sup-porting them with access to experts and a learning platform full of ideas and innovative thinking,”says Husak.One way to get out of the tradi-tional way of thinking and into a for-ward-thinking,agile-open one is to adopt the three guiding princi-ples that Emergn advises busi

86、nesses to consider:1Deliver valueearly and oftenThink in terms of small units of value,which you can validate with your cus-tomers while appealing to them at the same time.2Optimise the flow of work end-to-endIts not simply about learning to work faster.Its about finding ways to respond rapidly in u

87、npredictable con-ditions to eliminate waste and delay.3Discover quality with fast feedbackPrioritise learning to find out what works and what doesnt through experimentation and adapt your plans accordingly.The principles dont provide pre-de-fined answers,but instead serve as a springboard to agility

88、.Together,they make up a philosophy that you can use to equip your leaders,employees and partners to solve whatever uncer-tainties your business future holds.All the mechanics of agility,which are what most companies concentrate on,emerge from this philosophy,not the other way around.These principle

89、s are implemented by Emergn within hundreds of businesses worldwide who ask for an assessment of the way their business works now,what great looks like,and how to bridge the gap.That work begins by asking questions.“Our number one hypoth-esis is that every business serves at least one market,”says H

90、usak.“Do they know what that market is?Do they understand the customer?”Answering that establishes the concept of value for a business.It then leads businesses to think about who else can provide that value to customers as well as shareholders.It encourages them to consider competitors and their com

91、-panys place in the sector.The rest fol-lows from there.Change starts here: than a thing to do or a goal,is a means to an end:a way to reach your desired business outcomes,and to develop a thriving business that provides valuable products and expe-riences to the market,has productive staff and partn

92、ers and is managed for stability and growth.Most companies want to offer pre-ferred products and services to an expanding client base,and operate in a way that supports their business model by keeping costs and labour time low.They do that by planning and modelling to head off any issues before they

93、 occur.“But the premise of agility is actually changing the way you think about,how you respond to,or even how you view the market in the first place,”says Husak.That goes right back to the basic roots of how your business operates.Becoming agile is a journey,because agile methods and techniques are

94、 very different to the old ways of working.They require a different mindset from managers and a different approach to structuring workflow and workforce.In order to adopt and adapt to this new mindset,business leaders need to think about what outcomes theyre trying to achieve,and how everyone can al

95、ign with those outcomes.They need to investigate how their organi-sation defines value,and whether staff Change the way you think about agileWhy you should focus on value,flow and quality to create a thriving businessF Agile,rather than a thing to do or a goal,is a means to an end:a way to reach you

96、r desired business outcomes,and to develop a thriving business that provides valuable products and experiences to the market The premise of agility is actually changing the way you think about,how you respond to,or even how you view the market in the first placeAgile offers aid sector food for thoug

97、hteveloping software in Sili-con Valley is a world away from delivering global health solutions in Addis Ababa,but the uncertainty and risk inherent in both sectors mean that both can benefit from agile practices.Agiles highly customer-centric approaches,involving nimble teams,iterative solutions an

98、d networks,may not initially appear to be a good fit for global development.The sector typically has rigid rules on how to deliver aid:funding has to be pre-ap-proved,and projects are designed overseas and in advance,far from where theyre implemented.Development agencies,however,are discovering how

99、effective agile methods can be in this context.An agile approach offers the ability to react to evolving circumstances in a complicated environment with mul-tiple stakeholders and to build on realised successes.So could agile be a game-changer for the aid sector?Aid delivery has been traditionally d

100、ictated by what tech bros might call the waterfall model a project management technique based around the fixed implementation of a pre-designed plan with objectives often set in an HQ far from the con-text of their intended destination.The argument for localisation in global development is that dire

101、c-tion comes from a place of priority,not the vision of a distant donor with their own strategy.Thats especially true when the interna-tional funder isnt the source of money but instead reports into another layer,which may not nec-essarily be developmentally mind-ed.This set of realities can lead to

102、 bad outcomes,says Tessa Dooms,who runs Jasoro Consulting and who has more than a decade of development experience.Dooms cites an example from South Africa when,in the midst of the coronavirus crisis,a develop-ment worker realised that all their projects required face-to-face con-tact and therefore

103、couldnt go“What is built into these projects is some kind of regular data gather-ing from the ultimate users,”she says.There must then be the incen-tive to learn from that data and incorporate it back into the project,programme or product.There are limits to the change in course,however,with the agi

104、lity being in how you deliver,not what you deliver.Wider changes to how development works at scale are also unlikely in the near future.One major challenge is that donors tend to issue requests for proposals for multi-year and complex projects that are still outlined in a frame-work requiring step-b

105、y-step detail.“Its really hard to plan develop-ment at that level of certainty and oftentimes,these designs lock you into a certain course of action that becomes very difficult to adjust,”Helms says.It poses the question:who is the real customer when the end-user isnt the stakeholder holding the pur

106、sestrings?But thats another parallel with the tech sector,where the design of websites and apps may be more informed by the demands of advertisers or other funding entities than end-users.Yet more food for thought on the role of agile in the future of global aid.One major challenge in the aid sector

107、 is how to react quickly to evolving circumstances in a complex environment with multiple stakeholders.Could agile be the answer?ahead.They asked their organisa-tion if they could help their imple-menting partners to assist their own marginalised communities,only to be told that they werent a“humani

108、tarian”organisation so couldnt help feed them but could buy them laptops instead.“That kind of stuff,it evades logic,”she says.“If youre going to actually have partners on the ground,you must see their needs and be able to respond.If not,why are you there?”Any innovation must have close ties between

109、 the people and the contexts,she adds.Agile in development allows responsiveness in the changing environment and adaptation when pre-programmed activities are no jean-claude soboul via Getty ImagesThe fact we had experimented for a couple of years with agile methodology made it easier for our teams

110、to respond quicklySophia AkramAn agile approach can help get the right aid to the people that need it,and quicklyG L O B A L D E V E L O P M E N TDlonger appropriate.Many projects have a complex set of stakeholders on the ground including commu-nities,implementing partners,employees,governments and

111、sup-pliers where unequal power dynamics can emerge.Proponents of agile say the methodologys focus on end-users help redress those imbalances,with communi-ties rather than governments or donors having more control over inputs and outcomes.Aid agencies from the World Bank to USAID are embedding agile

112、meth-ods using small,nimble teams on the ground,engaging partners to co-create solutions or using an agile approach in certain areas such as proposal writing rather than adopting the method wholesale.Agile doesnt replace their man-agement principles but allows for more short-term and flexible plan-n

113、ing,says Torbjrn Pettersson,director of HR and communications at SIDA,the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.He also stresses how the pandem-ic illustrated the rapidly and unpre-dictably changing context for development work;conflict zones and climate change are other exam-ples of

114、how an environment can change during a project.Covid-19 restrictions,Pettersson recollects,led SIDA to reprogramme around a third of their billion-dollar budget in 90 days.“Im quite certain that the fact we had experimented for a couple of years with agile methodology made it easier for our teams to

115、 respond very quickly.And the result was quite impressive,”Pettersson says.The rise of mobile and other tech influencing delivery in the field means theres more scope for software solutions to problems.Performance metrics are also more easily identified and applied to improve a project.Water mapping

116、 technology is an example of how clean water and san-itation projects can use data to have the most impact.The World Bank and AusAid used the open tool Formhub to create smartphone data collection forms for a rural pro-gramme in Vietnam.This collabora-tive application shows in real-time how much of

117、the population has access to clean water and if changes in delivery need to be made.The rigorous approach to monitor-ing,evaluation and collection of metrics is something private busi-nesses could take as inspiration from the aid sector,says Brigit Helms,executive director of the Miller Center for S

118、ocial Entrepreneurship.R A C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S0908 Everyones job changes.Fundamental ways of working,new teams and team leaders everything is new In the pursuit of being faster and cheaper theres a disturbance to the system where youll be the oppositehen would you say the be

119、st time to adopt a total work culture transformation would be?During a period of rela-tive economic calm where you can change at your own pace and on your own terms?Or,when the world is about to be thrown into a time of unfathomable turmoil,the likes of which anyone of todays working age will never

120、have seen?Direct Line Group somehow picked the latter.“You couldnt make it up,”says Mark Evans,managing director of marketing and digital at the insurer.“So soon after we triggered agile,we have a pandemic reaching the shores of the UK and were all working from home within 48 hours.”To suggest that

121、Direct Line switched from a standard working culture to an agile one in a couple of days is a bit of an exaggeration.In fact,the company had been dipping a toe in agile for several years,albeit limited to a separate digital silo.“We did have a bit of a following wind,with 10 squads that had emerged

122、organically,and our digi-tal function already operating in full-blown agile.There was data and evidence to do it wholesale,”admits Evans.Though propelled somewhat by circumstances,the move to agile was a considered one and the result of a series of carefully thought-out business evolutions.In the mi

123、ddle of 2019,Penny James was named Evans more time to do communica-tions around what agile would mean for teams,explaining how it would work and creating immersive boot-camps training that would help staff understand agile methodology.It took the business nearly a year to get it off the ground in th

124、e end.Even with the diligent ground-work,Evans admits it was“a big jolt to the system”.A big jolt perhaps doesnt quite do it justice.“Everyones job changes.Fundamental ways of working,new teams and team leaders everything is new.With that comes a level of excitement,intrigue,concern and adjustment,”

125、he says.Perhaps surprisingly,with all the unfamiliar language that accompa-nies agile,Direct Lines staff didnt seem to have too much difficulty adopting the new tools and tech-niques.“Scrum,sprint,storypoint-ing all that tangible,evidential stuff.The adjustment to that is quick.We have smart people

126、and its not voodoo.Breaking it down into manageable chunks which allowed for experimentation in a contained way meant all the very visible stuff was quick.”What took time,Evans reveals,was changing hearts and minds.“In the same way that Drucker says culture eats strategy for breakfast,mindset eclips

127、es methodology.There are intrinsic concepts that are an even bigger adjustment,not least genuine accountability.As a squad,you have your mission and come hell or high water,you are on the hook for stuff.Autonomy,mindset,independence,accountability maybe that should be easier than process,but its not

128、,”he warns.The shift to agile was also a chal-lenge for Evans personally,and his fellow leaders.“I think were pretty good in terms of being an empower-ing culture but the switch to serv-ant leadership,for me and everyone else,was quite an adjustment.”Servant leadership essentially flips the traditio

129、nal view of what leaders do on its head.While tradi-tionally,leaders main aim was to ensure their business succeeds,in servant leadership while this is still the ultimate goal,the leaders aim is to focus on the growth and well-be-ing of the organisations people.The Robert E Greenleaf Center for Serv

130、-ant Leadership defines it as follows:“The servant-leader shares power,puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.”For Evans,this meant letting go of his traditional roles,such as deci-sion-making,and handing over much more autonomy to his teams.“You se

131、t the frameworks but the translation of that intent into work,youre just not involved in that detail as much.You cant become disconnected,but theres a bit of a fine line knowing when to get in,and out of,the way.”Not everyone drank the Kool-Aid straightaway.Evans is clearly an impassioned advocate o

132、f agile but he recognises its a significant step away from the norm for many.“The most important thing was that we all stood shoulder to shoulder to say this is our future reality.”As Evans noted,Direct Line had the benefit of a portion of its business already operating successfully using agile meth

133、odologies,so some of the convincing argument was already made.They still brought in agile coaches and support,particularly when the honeymoon period was over and the expected dip in out-comes came along.“In the pursuit of being faster and cheaper theres a disturbance to the system where youll be the

134、 opposite.Its in years two and three where you start to see shifts in output and impact,”he explains.For those approaching agile cold,Evans notes that pockets of experi-mentation can indeed be a good thing,although he warns against locking them in silos.“Department by department defeats the object.I

135、nterdepartmental collaboration is where the magic lies.”Now well into his third year post-agile transformation,would Evans say it has been a success?“We retain the mentality of never per-fect,never done.It can always be improved.But wed never go back,so that in itself is a success.”The evidence,he s

136、uggests,is in classic examples of agile innovation.Direct Line had never offered cycling coverage but with the cycling boom during the pandemic,an open brief to a squad launched a product in a month that would have taken a year in the old system.“Disruptors is who were up against.We are vulnerable t

137、o dis-ruption but this is how you get your innovation mojo back.”And for those who still wonder if agile is out of their reach he has a parting shot:“If you can do it in the highly regu-lated world of insurance,you can probably do it anywhere.”Mark Evans,Direct Line Groups managing director for mark

138、eting and digital,reveals how agile delivered the interdepartmental collaboration needed to transform and innovateThis is how you get your innovation mojo backMorag Cuddeford-Jonesdigital AI,2021WHY ORGANISATIONS SHOULD GO AGILE Percentage of global workers who say the following were the most import

139、ant reasons for adopting Agile within their team or organisation as the groups new CEO and a new executive committee meant it was time for change.“New leadership is always a bit of a reflection point.We recognised that we needed to be more innovative and increase the speed of delivering that innovat

140、ion,”says Mark.“At the same time,we wanted to reduce the cost of change.We were getting feedback that this was a sticky place to get stuff done.There were too many hando-vers.It didnt take a genius to work out that agile promises to be a solution to these things.”But,he adds:“Its a pretty big change

141、 in terms of ways of working and its not to be taken lightly.We worked with McKinsey and spent a lot of time with ING,which is a com-parable business.Then we spent over 100 hours thinking about the archi-tecture whats in scope,whats not.“Phase two was then,how do we land this in the business?We had

142、to put swathes of head office into con-sultation and then,10 days later,lockdown hits,”he adds.Lockdown was a challenging a time for Direct Line,as it was for many other businesses.But Evans says the company was lucky to not have to furlough staff,which he admits would have put extra“stress on the s

143、ystem”.Instead,lockdown gave I N T E R V I E WWEnhance ability to manage changing priorities64%Enhance software quality42%Increase team productivity47%Improve project visibility40%Accelerate software delivery64%Enhance delivery predictability41%Improve business and IT alignment 47%R A C O N T E U R.

144、N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S1110Commercial featurehile adaptability has always been important,the last two years made it clear that busi-nesses must invest in resiliency to suc-ceed.And while nearly all businesses had to react to disrupted supply chains,unexpected shifts in demand,and new ways of

145、working,its our manufactur-ers and distributors who faced the brunt of this pressure,and who likewise must make resiliency plans one of their utmost priorities.The good news is that cloud ERP soft-ware is helping companies implement efficient,agile business models that can change and scale at speed.

146、“When organisations are forced to change their business processes,the cloud offers them the flexibil-ity to react quickly.Whether its to meet new regulations,seize new opportunities,or protect the health and safety of staff,the cloud can have an incredible positive impact on both your business succe

147、ss as well as the success of your employ-ees and customers.Ultimately,the true power of cloud is that it can enable a world of better business,”said Andy Coussins,SVP&head of international at Epicor,a cloud-based software provider.When looking for use cases of cloud impact,the list is sky high.For e

148、xam-ple,the agility of cloud has been key for rewiring supply chains to cater for changes in buyer trends.B2B distribu-tors like hardware firms that sell their products to tradesmen via branches have had to adapt and offer services to customers who now wish to order online.Many have also had to gene

149、rate new ways of retaining and attracting new customers to avoid disinterme-diation as manufacturers seek to sell directly to end users.Cloud also allows manufacturers and distributors to extend the capabilities of,and around,their core business appli-cations like ERP to streamline opera-tions and t

150、ake advantage of new revenue streams.Examples include ecommerce platforms,EDI for faster payments and information exchange,and enterprise content management that enables Realising the full power of the cloud to boost resilienceRewiring supply chains for cloud-based solutions enables companies to bec

151、ome more agile,efficient and resilientdigitisation of the traditional paperwork in the production process.Efficiency can also be optimised through scheduling capabilities in the cloud.With a simple Epicor software tool,manufacturers and distributors can schedule sales orders with multi-ple releases

152、to meet customer needs in product release on their schedule.In doing so,businesses can prevent two common problems on opposite ends of the spectrum:either products sitting in their warehouses for long periods or repeatedly sending the same order.Customer satisfaction and retention can also be improv

153、ed via the clouds readily available data.For example,sales history tools in Epicor solutions enable manufacturers and distribu-tors to view a customers sales history to see all the items theyve bought,so they can have an informed conversa-tion with their buyers.CRM solutions integrated into ERP syst

154、ems also pro-vide a clear view of customers,pros-pects,and contact data,from oppor-tunity to quote to order.The availability of data is likewise key to reducing supply chain costs and improving the bottom line through more informed decision-making.Tools such as advanced demand fore-casting,advanced

155、inventory manage-ment(including sporadic and seasonal demand patterns),lead time per item per location,and vendor-managed inventory all enable companies to make business decisions based on hard data rather than using their gut instinct.But,how safe is company data from the risk of cyber attacks?Ther

156、e is more good news on this front.Cloud ERP offers state-of-the-art security,from data encryption to system firewalls,while company data is backed up on servers that are routinely updated to combat the newest cyber threats.Cloud solutions also isolate email from ERP business applications,making it m

157、uch harder to infiltrate organisations through phishing,a common form of cyber attack.In contrast,on-premises solu-tions can be harder to protect,slower to respond to an attack,and more vulnera-ble to break-ins or natural disasters.Andy Reid,director of international product marketing at Epicor,is c

158、on-fident that moving to the cloud is the safest bet for distributors and manufac-turers.He says:“With cloud software,you can benefit from the experience and investments made by your software and infrastructure providers,spreading the responsibility and mitigating the risk of cyber attacks.The quest

159、ion should really be why would you not put your data in the cloud?”While the multitude of cloud capabil-ities is great,Coussins stresses that its the combination of people using soft-ware solutions in impactful ways while applying their own expertise when full potential can be truly unlocked.“Never

160、discount the knowledge of some-one who has worked in an industry for 20 years,”he says.“They can pro-vide a valuable perspective,and typi-cally have great instincts.View all the incredible data from the cloud as a way to empower your employees to make more fully informed decisions.And then have them

161、 utilise the cloud to improve the speed and accuracy of their deci-sion-making.It should be an exciting opportunity for all involved and a uni-fying opportunity for business leaders and employees to build a better busi-ness together.”For more information visit E Cloud software can mitigate the risk

162、of cyber attacksWgile organisations are often defined as networks of empowered teams able to respond swiftly to changes in the marketplace,and operate with high levels of efficiency,collaboration and flexibility.Its a working style that appeals to those who can make decisions quickly,pivot constantl

163、y and maintain a customer-centric focus at all times.So where can hir-ing organisations find these quick-thinking,autonomous go-getters who are completely at ease with agile practices?The most obvious place to look is in talent pools where people are used to working in this way.Howev-er,in light of

164、the Great Resigna-tion Microsoft research has revealed that 41%of global workers are considering throwing in the towel companies need to consider alternative candidate demograph-ics.This includes women returners and career changers,as well as peo-ple from non-traditional back-grounds with non-linear

165、 career paths that could indicate an agile mindset used to learning quickly and thinking differently.Paul Chapman,sales director at software firm Endava,says:“While hard skills can often be taught,fresh perspectives can be a compelling addition to your company.By prior-itising character and lived ex

166、perienc-es among employees,agile companies can attract people they previously might not have,who can add real value to the companys ability to deliver meaningful solutions.”To facilitate this hiring approach,open mindedness from recruitment teams by creating an academy,Monday U,to help people gain t

167、he agile skills needed for a career in the tech industry.Ms global director of HR Hadas Mor-Feldbau says:“By fostering talent with a growth mindset,companies can help iden-tify a diverse group of people who can learn and adapt to an agile way of working.However,they also need to create a culture tha

168、t pro-motes transparency,impact and ownership and provides agile teams with the knowledge and autonomy to make a meaningful impact,with the freedom to admit and learn from mistakes.”Retaining agile talent is vital,and incentives need to reflect what motivates these particular individ-uals.Money isnt

169、 necessarily the answer,as many employees today would choose perks over a pay rise.In an agile setting they want more of what makes them valuable to the organisation:autonomy,flexibility,freedom to be creative,and sup-port rather than oversight.With the current dearth of tal-ent,organisations also n

170、eed to consider ways of upskilling their existing talent to become agile,with leaders and managers able to span cross-functional silos,teams,remits and responsibili-ties to operate faster and more efficiently.The challenge is that this new manager arche-type isnt easily developed with conventional m

171、anagement or leadership training.Ben Graham,co-founder and managing partner of global executive search firm Triton-Exec,says:“Exposure to being different characters is key.Companies getting this right have typically exposed staff at every avenue of the business.For example,weve seen some transition

172、from sales to con-sulting to digital,giving them a much wider understanding of the business functions and its overall goals.Also building on existing strengths by role-changing has often brought out the best in agile teams,where for example weve seen solution architects transi-tion into sales,and sa

173、les transi-tioning into consulting.”Creating agile teams is as much of an attitude as it is a practice.Leaders who are suc-cessfully inspiring agile teams are typically excellent communi-cators,not barking out orders and instructions,but leading by posi-tive and believable example,warts and all.This

174、 is character-ised by leaders who share their life and business journeys on social media,are transparent and remove barriers.“Showing the balance of their lives,whether marathons,charity endeav-ours,family life,politics and business milestones,shows a breadth of versa-tility that should act as a bra

175、nd of cul-ture for all staff within the business,”says Graham.“They should feel inspired to be as diverse and robust as their leaders who share elements of their wholehearted life journeys.”Upskilling managers to agile working requires support that is ongoing and integrated,particular-ly in the new

176、landscape of hybrid and remote working,where teams are collaborating largely through virtual channels.Organisations must establish an infrastructure that allows agile ways of working to flourish.Without it,new recruits become a flight risk,and upskilled leaders and managers can all too easily revert

177、 back to familiar,more traditional ways of working.For the individual,the transition from conventional management styles to agile working practices can be a huge challenge.Agile is about the capacity to quickly catch the weak signals of change so that teams have enough time to tweak processes and pr

178、oducts accordingly.“Managers need to adapt quickly to real-time reports and tracking met-rics that move the business in the right direction and at the right pace,”says Severino.“Instead of 40 to 50 metrics,they will collect and discuss between three and nine metrics,and the cadence will be weekly,wi

179、th live dashboards instead of long quarterly reports.”To help ease the transition he advocates the adoption of three key habits:a daily habit of reviewing how your time was allocated today and what you can improve tomor-row;a weekly habit of reviewing core weekly marketing,sales and operations numbe

180、rs;and a monthly habit of competitive analysis and velocity review of whether the busi-ness is moving in the right direc-tion at the right pace.“These three habits have helped to keep my busi-ness and my team resilient and agile,”Severino says.Agile employees value flexibility,learning and the freed

181、om to be creative,and they often follow non-linear career paths.Is your talent acquisition strategy keeping up?10000 Hours via Getty ImagesAlison ColemanBuilding on existing strengths by role-changing has often brought out the best in agile teamsAptitude for autonomy:how to build an agile workforcea

182、nd leadership is essential when building teams.Hiring well is vital,but to retain those agile-enabled individuals,leaders need to afford employees a level of autonomy.The best people need to be taught,guided and led,but not managed.They also need space to learn continually,be recognised for their ap

183、titudes and allowed to grow beyond their role.“Siloing staff into certain func-tions and predetermined disciplines runs counter to allowing people to flourish in agile teams,”says Chap-man.“Combine this with a talent density approach,where compa-nies hone in on fewer numbers of higher-quality recrui

184、ts with more appropriate attributes,and you have a powerful cocktail.When hiring effectively,often less is more.”Appropriate agile attributes are also very specific.Energy,curiosity and speed are three that a hiring firm will want to see evidence of,says Simon Severino,founder and CEO of growth cons

185、ultancy Strategy Sprints.“When interviewing inter-nal and external candidates,agile businesses use demo sessions live demonstrations of the skills needed for the role at hand,”he says.“A coder might be asked to write a few lines of code during the session,while a sales representative might be asked

186、to demonstrate how they start a sales conversation.”Ideal candidates are also primed towards experimentation,like sci-entists testing hypotheses.“In the business setting,a concept or draft becomes a project,with deadlines and a budget,”Severino says.“Instead of running market research projects for t

187、hree months,the agile approach creates many quick small drafts and tests them in a low-risk environment in less than a week.The winners become the elements of the campaign.”Others argue that companies can become focused on finding ready-made talent when instead they should be trying to create it.Wor

188、k-flow management software compa-ny M has grown its agile TA L E N TAigital AI,2021HOW IMPLEMENTING AGILE IMPACTS WORKERSPercentage of workers who say the implementation of agile positively impacted the following areas of their organisationTeam moraleManaging distributed teams70%70%66%64%60%60%52%Te

189、am productivityDelivery speed/time to marketBusiness/IT alignment Visibility Managing changing priorities Microsoft,202141%global workforce is like to consider leaving their current employer within the next yearR A C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S1312 Businesses have long known that embr

190、acing agile practices can make them more efficient and better at weathering crises.But changing up the way your whole business works is no mean feat.So,how should companies approach becoming agile and what wins can they expect to see if they do?THE JOURNEY TO AGILEHOW COULD YOUR BUSINESS USE AGILE?P

191、ercentage of IT professionals globally who say the following areas of their organisation have adopted Agile principles and practicesHOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS Percentage of IT professionals globally who say their organisations measure the success of agile transformations in the following waysAGILITY FRE

192、ES LEADERS UP TO DO MORE Percentage of CEOs who say they spent their time in the following ways before and after agile transformationWHAT CHALLENGES MIGHT YOU FACE?Percentage of respondents whose organisations are undergoing an agile transformation who say the following are their top five challenges

193、T H E B U S I N E S S B E N E F I T S O F A G I L EEMBRACING AGILE CAN BOOST ENGAGEMENT Percentage of global organisations,across all sectors,who are embedding agility and who say it is having the following impacts on engagement levels(where 100%is a strong impact and 0%a weak one),based on scale of

194、 agile in an organisationWe are efficient at managing changeWe have a great team spiritWe openly learn from mistakesWe are recognised for our contributionScaled agileSome agileNo agileWe put the best ideas into actionMy leader is inclusiveWe have a good work/life balanceI feel valued by my organisat

195、ionAverage score86%63%29%17%17%16%11%10%10%6%2%76%42%34%28%28%Software developmentITOperationsMarketingSecurityHuman resourcesSales/Sales OpsFinanceHardware developmentOtherNoneTransforming the culture and ways of workingLack of leadership and talentEstablishing a clear vision and implementation pla

196、nInsufficient resourcesOvercoming technological bottlenecksStrategyOperations managementManaging talentPre-transformationAfter three years10%30%60%Customer/user satisfactionBusiness valueBusiness objectives achievedOn-time deliveryQualityProductivityOrganisational culture/moraleProcess improvementPr

197、edictabilityProject visibilityProduct scopeDont knowOther59%58%50%48%48%41%41%39%37%30%19%10%4%is the time business agility transformations require to deliver significant benefits in business agilityThe Business Agility Institute,2021of organisations have been on this journey for over 2 years56%2 yr

198、s25%35%40%Digital.ai,2021Bain&Company,202264%64%17%36%18%49%85%91%70%77%74%24%70%42%52%27%10%12%25%48%78%48%47%49%11%38%53%26%36%3%43%43%15%36%43%30%Enterprise-wide agilesaid it was an increase in productivitysaid it was to improve the alignment between the business and ITof global employees,across

199、all sectors,say expediting the delivery of products or services was the most important reason to adopt agile practices in their teams or organisationsCertiProf,202110%12%14%HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AGILE?Digital.ai,2021McKinsey,2020JCURV with Truth Sayers and Agile Business Consortium,2021R A

200、 C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S1514HOW STRONG IS AGILE LEADERSHIP?Global employees perception of the strength of agile managers across in their organisations,where 100%is strong and 0%is weak Successful business leaders may be bold visionaries but they dont put themselves on a pedestal

201、 or go for glory.Instead,they empower and facilitate staff from behind the scenes,enabling them to unleash their potential within a safe,supportive environment key to unlocking this,especially as remote working has increased owing to the coronavirus pandemic.“To progress,leaders must relin-quish con

202、trol,ensuring their teams have the clarity and compe-tency required to achieve the same goal.This can be a difficult transi-tion for a leader but its an impor-tant step to take,”the report says.However,there is a lack of engage-ment and investment in leadership development.“Too often,leaders invest

203、heavily in agility learning and development for delivery per-sonnel but neglect the equivalent for themselves,”it continues.It warns that the number of busi-ness leaders who are perceived by employees as using agile approach-es,such as effectively prioritising the highest value outcomes and experime

204、nting to improve perfor-mance,dropped to 44%last year,down from 56%in 2020.So,there seems to be a degree of disconnect between what agile leaders think they are achieving and how they are regarded by their employees,indicating the need for more and improved input.“There are many organisations that s

205、ay they are agile but do not understand it,and are yet to truly embrace it,”says scrum trainer Kneafsey.“Managers are incentiv-ised to install agility but not empowered by the organisation to make the changes it requires.”Employees closest to the work often experience the negative effects of this re

206、ality,he says,and that number has risen“as more organisations have moved to become agile to handle the effects of the pandemic”.Without the right training,skills and wider organisational support,many wannabe agile leaders will struggle to be effective,continues Kneafsey.“The move to becoming an agil

207、e organisation is significant and takes time,resources and ongoing support.”process.Every employee could pitch their ideas to company leaders.By empowering teams,and being customer centric,agile leaders can unleash their workforces full poten-tial.They know how to nurture high-performing teams to ke

208、ep them operating at the top of their game.e is the worlds second rich-est man and built his for-tune on agile leadership.Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has tamed bureaucracy and made his company one of the most agile,and profitable,on the planet.Bezos famously organises his work-force into“two-pizza”tea

209、ms,that is,those small enough to be fed by two pizzas and flexible enough to move quickly.They are agile,highly auton-omous,have clarity of purpose and prove fast to innovate.The online retail and cloud ser-vices multi-billionaire expects everyone in his organisation to put the customer first.He is

210、known to leave one place empty at the conference table and tells his staff they should consider the seat occupied by their customer:the most important person in the room.His“multiple paths to yes”approach fosters a robust internal idea-sharing 10000 Hours via Getty ImagesPeter ArcherUnder an agile l

211、eadership model,staff are encouraged to share ideas and experiment.Communication is transparent and employees have the information they need to make quick decisions with confidence.This minimises the bureaucratic roadblocks that stifle creativity.Agile leaders communicate open-ly with their team mem

212、bers,and are always listening and observing.Listening to employees on the frontline is key to agile leadership as practical process solutions are likely to come from the people most intimately familiar with them.Giv-ing and receiving feedback are equally important.If an initiative isnt working,agile

213、 leaders dont throw blame around.They look at the data to see why it didnt work and use what they learn from it to correct course.Importantly,they lead by example and create an inclusive culture in which teams feel recognised for their contribution.Team spirit and a positive environment are promoted

214、.Crucially,agile teams rely on psy-chological safety an environment of rewarded vulnerability to engender collaborative dialogue.Writing in the Harvard Business Review,Timothy R Clark,founder and chief executive of LeaderFactor,a global leadership consulting and training firm,says high psychologi-ca

215、l safety elicits a performance response,with innovation as the goal,whereas low psychological safety results in a fear response,with survival as the object.“When team members stop ask-ing questions,admitting mistakes,exploring ideas and challenging the status quo,they stop being agile,”says Clark.“R

216、emember,theres always the risk that a teams culture will snap back to fear-based norms,so focus on individuals and interactions as the highest priority.Small and seeming-ly insignificant acts of disrespect,rudeness or indifference can push a team back into withdrawal and per-sonal risk management.”A

217、s Bezos and other successful agile leaders know,the rewards are bountiful.According to the State of Agile Culture Report,building a strong agile culture will result in an increased commercial performance of 237%.The incentive to be an agile leader could hardly be greater.But the report points out th

218、at adoption of an agile culture is cited by 48%of organisations as their biggest challenge.It finds that leadership is the ena-bling factor for building a strong agile culture and empowerment is We dont need another heroJust as they avoid placing the indi-vidual above the group,agile leaders dont pu

219、t themselves above the team.Although capable of bold action,they work in the background to facilitate processes.Theyre not trying to be heroes or micromanag-ers,rather they strive to produce desired outcomes for the business.“The changes for all involved are profound,but so are the results when ever

220、yones goals and ways of working are aligned.Effective leadership is essential to support this change,”says Simon Kneafsey,professional scrum trainer at The Scrum Master.“Many organisations are still in the midst of the changes required to increase agility and more leaders inside these organisations

221、need to adapt the way they work to suit this new environment.This shift to increased agility is essential to deal with the increasing complexity of the world of work in the 21st century.”Judging by the characteristics of successful agile business leaders,they are focused,dynamic,strate-gic,bold,open

222、,inspirational,col-laborative,always listening,contin-uously learning,resilient and able to deal with frequent disruption.Leaders must relinquish control,ensuring their teams have the clarity and competency requiredL E A D E R S H I PHCommercial featurerofessional services compa-nies are already ben

223、efiting from the implementation of digital technology,but to profit fully,their employees and clients need to under-stand what is driving that investment.Every company has recently spent money on digital tools in some capacity and experienced efficiency savings and revenue boosts as a result.Yet,man

224、y pain points remain that could be solved by further investment in tech.Chief digital officer at RSM UK,Chris Knowles,says one barrier is that firms worry they will not see any signifi-cant return on investment for some time.Yet he insists that the gains can be swift,especially if a company has a st

225、rategic plan when it comes to digi-tal.This includes thinking clearly about how end-users will adopt popular technologies such as data analytics,automation or client portals.“We had a big investment push around analytics and had a high level of adoption within a matter of months,”he says.“The buy-in

226、 internally was fairly easy to achieve,once we had demonstrated the value that analytics can quickly bring to make time spent One issue that prompted businesses to invest in digital sooner than they perhaps might have done,was the dif-ficulty they had in getting their national or international teams

227、 together to col-laborate and innovate.With everyone working virtually,there was a risk that operational and behavioural change would be harder to achieve.Amy Smart,digital transformation partner at Grant Thornton UK,says that the pandemic accelerated digital adoption significantly.“Change is hard,b

228、ut like many companies the pandemic forced adoption of a more digital way of working.It gave us permission to push out digital initiatives within a few weeks which could have otherwise taken years to implement,”she says.“Digital also allows us to unlock the power of our community.We have all these p

229、eople with brilliant ideas and different skills who,with the right tools,can really contribute to our journey and help us get there quicker.”She adds that when professional ser-vices companies do invest in digital,they need to ensure they capture and manage the mass of data they gen-erate effectivel

230、y.Data must be in the right place at the right time to unlock opportunities from technology.Of course,better use of data also means more actionable insights that will ben-efit clients in the short-and long-term.Tom Amies-Cull,global chief operating officer,media at Dentsu International,says one of t

231、he biggest wins for his global company is that the business is now more integrated.This means its teams can offer clients a more consist-ent and innovative service.“You have to think of this whole pro-cess in a holistic way because digital transformation is fundamentally busi-ness transformation,”he

232、 says.“You have to start with the impact that any change will have on your people and your clients,and then link that to what you are trying to do as a business.This approach will make change much more manageable.”Dentsu International is currently rationalising its number of brands from around 60 to

233、 six,and digital tools are enabling the change to run more smoothly.Technology is being used to connect different teams and reduce some of the silos and local issues that existed before.As any business invests more in digital transformation,the efficiency savings in terms of money and time become mo

234、re obvious.Yet,there have also been some big wins for professional services.Companies have moved quicker than some might have imagined to a system in which electronic signatures are used.This is saving time and improv-ing a service providers revenues compared to the traditional system of printing or

235、 scanning.It is also proving to be a useful entry point when it comes to encouraging clients to interact more closely with providers online.This is certainly progress because,as Knowles notes,the broader profes-sional services and business-to-busi-ness sector has been late to the party when it comes

236、 to moving clients to an online relationship.“To further encourage this over the next few years,we have to think about how we can add more value to clients digitally,”he says.What digital transformation has done is raise expectations of provid-ers among their employees as well as their clients.As co

237、nsumers,we have all become used to instant responses from business-to-consumer com-panies,and this is putting pressure on professional services firms to up their game.Digital transformation is also changing the culture of many companies,espe-cially as people adopt hybrid working.Drake says digital t

238、echnology has fuelled a change whereby people are now working quicker and have adopted more of a test and learn approach.“With digital tools people feel empow-ered to take a few risks in a relatively safe environment,”he says.“Clients are also responding faster and making decisions quicker.”This is

239、a crucial point.Professional services companies and their clients need to be on the same digital page when it comes to technology and how they use it day-to-day.There will also be times when providers need to be agile enough to work within the con-straints of their clients investment in digital so f

240、ar,and arguably vice-versa.Ultimately when it comes to digital transformation,professional services companies need a clear strategy and to be able to set and communicate long-term goals.All companies will make a mistake or two along the way,but the secret is to learn from those so that the provider

241、and its clients gain value from what should be an ongoing investment.For more,please visit hitachi-solutions.co.ukon client delivery more productive and value-adding.”Dan Guest,chief operations and commercial officer at Mitie Technical Services,agrees that companies need a strategy and must be clear

242、 on the business case for investing in any dig-ital technology.“The plan has to be communicated to everyone,including your people and clients.The direct impact on them might not be obvious immediately,”he says.Covid-19 has certainly accelerated digital transformation investment across professional s

243、ervices.Simon Drake,SVP and UK general manager at Hitachi Solutions,says the pandemic forced many provid-ers to look closely at how they could improve their inefficiencies.“We all had to think about how to take what we do and replicate it very,very fast using digital tools,”he says.“How could we use

244、 cloud technology to deploy ser-vices rapidly and consistently,whilst respecting each clients individual needs?The pandemic has created a lot of opportunity,but it has also meant that how we engage with clients has had to change very quickly.”Why professional services companies must invest in digita

245、l transformationDigital transformation has caused professional services companies to reimagine their client relationships,analytics strategies and corporate culturesThe pandemic has created a lot of opportunity,but it has also meant that how we engage with clients has had to change very quicklyof co

246、mpanies say digital transformation will help them build a competitive advantage51%of companies say the changes to customer needs and expectations around digital service as a result of Covid-19 will have a lasting impact62%PSteve HemsleyMcKinsey,2021JCURV,2021They are role models in agile behaviourTh

247、ey apply agile ways of workingThey promote agile ways of workingThey encourage us to experiment to improve performanceThey effectively prioritise our focus on the highest value outcomesThey are inclusiveTheir behaviours are more agile since CovidI feel empowered by them 70%70%66%55%46%46%41%22%R A C

248、 O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S1716ovid-19 has reshaped all aspects of our lives,includ-ing the way we work.But the stress of adapting to new tech-nology and alternate ways of operat-ing has taken its toll on employees so much so that businesses are now in the throes of a wellbeing crisi

249、s.So,how do employers support the growing numbers of staff suffering from burnout,or struggling to keep up with the changes,while also offering greater flexibility in the workplace for those who have appre-ciated working from home during the long months of the pandemic?One solution could be to adopt

250、 an agile approach.It is well document-ed that business agility can improve efficiency and productivity,but many are unaware of the beneficial effect it can have on employee well-being.And the impact of a happier workforce on human resources departments,not to mention the benefits to business operat

251、ions more widely,can be significant.There are four principles of busi-ness agility placing individuals and interactions over processes and tools;putting working software ahead of comprehensive documen-tation;valuing customer collabora-tion over contract negotiation;and responding to change rather th

252、an following a plan.Putting these in place across an organisation can help to stave off some staff wellbeing issues before around the world have felt the stress and burnout of rapidly adapting to entirely new ways of working.”Recognising that Workhumans traditional systems and processes were no long

253、er tenable,the company changed tack,applying agile princi-ples to all aspects of the business.“The agile method is all about con-tinuous feedback try,learn,deliv-er,iterate,try,fail,learn,deliver,and so on,”explains Irvine.“Agile works because it keeps people focused on consistently moving for-ward.

254、It also enhances employees sense of personal control and auton-omy,due to its focus on flexibility.”The approach has the added ben-efit of encouraging closer collabo-ration and can reduce the mental burden on workers by chunking up tasks into smaller,easi-er-to-achieve goals.That shift in focus to w

255、hat can be done,rather than making sure everything is perfect,helps to alleviate unneces-sary stresses on employees,he says.“I can see how it could easily apply in other areas of life,too.”Putting the customer or end user first a central pillar of an agile strat-egy is another boon for wellbeing.“It

256、s all about contributing to a larger goal and feeling like your efforts are valued and the posi-tive effect that has on peoples wellbeing,”says Rasmussen.Purpose has become a major driv-er for many employees and a key choice they make when deciding where to work.According to research by manage-ment

257、consulting firm McKinsey,seven out of 10 employees sense of purpose is formed by what they do in the workplace.“I would say its about self-empowerment,”says Rasmussen.Respondents to The Growth Com-pany survey said they felt they were able to be more open and honest with their line manager about thei

258、r level of performance and the chal-lenges they needed to overcome to achieve their goals.That increased openness and made the interactions more constructive,too,which meant the business was able to adjust work commitments as well as instigate additional support for employees who were struggling.“On

259、e of the most serious impacts the pandemic has had on the world of work is on employees wellbeing,”says Derek Irvine,of HR manage-ment firm Workhuman.“Workers Businesses are helping staff to better cope with post-pandemic stress in the workplace by applying agility principles to their wellbeing stra

260、tegiesMore agile,less fragile:making wellbeing work betterChris Stokel-Walkerthey arise,says management con-sultancy BearingPoints global sustainability lead,Wiebke Ras-mussen:“Adopting agile princi-ples,if really incorporated for the whole organisation,benefits employees mental health from a preven

261、tion perspective.”Rasmussen has experience of implementing agile working prac-tices,and understands the benefits it offers businesses,from her prior work in the non-profit sector.Non-profits,she says,“have a very strong focus on participatory approaches and outcome-based solutions they work on.They

262、do a lot of things that really have agile at their roots in the non-profit sector,although they dont call it that.”Embracing agile working practices is,she says,“an investment in a healthier organisational structure”.But investing in a healthier struc-ture requires a rethink of working practices and

263、 how employees com-municate.Manchester-based train-ing provider The Growth Company,which is run as a social enterprise,adopted an agile strategy to try to boost employee wellbeing.Within six months,it saw significant improvements in staff morale.A survey of workers undertaken by the organisation hig

264、hlighted how employees cherished the impact that the introduction of agile work had had on their work/life balance and,therefore,their wellbeing.Workers around the world have felt the stress and burnout of rapidly adapting to entirely new ways of workingBy putting employees first,and fuelling their

265、inspiration,business-es can heighten wellbeing and head off issues before they arise,she says.“Feeling empowered does something to your self-confidence”with knock-on effects on the over-all mental health of staff as a result.A third of British workers sur-veyed by Canadian HR firm Life-Works said th

266、at offering flexibility in the workspace was the most important action that could sup-port their good mental health.“Employees want flexibility that allows them to manage life issues as they come up,and to organise their work situation in a way that works for them,”says Paula Allen,global leader and

267、 senior vice-president of research and total wellbeing at the company,which advises businesses on their agile wellbeing strategies.Structuring work in an agile man-ner is crucial for keeping wellbeing high,she says:“Employers need to be mindful that the impact of the pandemic will not be over when r

268、estrictions are no longer in place.”There are,however,a number of pitfalls associated with the adop-tion of agile practices in a compa-nys HR function.Although it is important,when considering workers wellbeing,to respond to change in an agile way-rather than following a plan-it is still crucial to

269、have some guidelines and procedures in place for when issues inevitably arise.And,ulti-mately,every organisation is measured by its outcome.“Having this idea of really under-standing what agile means and feeling it and trying to adopt its mindset is important,”says Ras-mussen.But“if you think of agi

270、le only from a methodological per-spective,thats a risk”.Instigating a more agile wellbe-ing strategy must therefore start at the top,she says.Leaders need to feel empowered to make a change and require training on how to develop an agile approach,and this will then trickle down to the rest of the w

271、orkforce.“Let your leaders reach out to their people and reap the benefits,”she says.So,as employees return to physi-cal workspaces and confront a new,post-pandemic world of employ-ment,companies should seize the moment to adopt a more agile way of working that will benefit not only employees wellbe

272、ing but the business as a whole,says Allen.“Now is not the time to sit still.”CIPD,2021HOW COVID IMPACTED WELLBEINGPercentage of UK employees who say the following have got better or worse as a result of the Covid-19 lockdownsW E L L B E I N GCWhile hard skills can often be taught,fresh perspectives

273、 can be a compelling addition to your companyPhysical healthMental healthFinancial securitySocial connections at workWorseNo changeBetter0%10%20%30%40%50%JCURV with Truth Sayers and Agile Business Consortium,202168%of global employees from organisations who are embedding agility explicitly say they

274、feel empowered by their leaders Thomas Barwick via Getty ImagesR A C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S1918oftware developers used to get a raw deal.Consigned to a life working in some win-dowless basement office location,their predilection for low-grade pizza and excessive consumption of Co

275、ke or Pepsi helped to craft a stereotype that endured for many years.But now its chic to be geek.Elevat-ed through hacker roles in Hollywood and championed in TV series,the coder community has gained a new level of respect.An asteroid is about to hit Earth and the planets defences have been compromi

276、sed by non-state actors sharing contaminated applica-tions across the dark web,you say?No problem,call the software engineer-ing teams super-hack SWAT squad.Only coders can save us now.But software professionals arent just for asteroid attacks or Christmas.They play a special role in translat-ing bu

277、siness logic into the“require-ments”phase that precedes applica-tion development.They know how to create apps that work as intended and can change when needed.Nobody needs to be told that the world had to reinvent many of its sys-tems,integration points and interfac-es throughout Covid-19.But,equall

278、y,few will perhaps realise how exacting and essentially agile the architectural systems engineering was that went on beneath the surface.Going forward,then,what can an organisations business function“suits”learn from developers when it comes to working in an agile way?Commercial featureIn prime shap

279、e for the futureOrganisations should adopt more lean-agile strategies to deal with the accelerating pace of change in todays worldhe last 24 months have been challenging for global businesses due to the pan-demic,the threat of climate change,supply chain bottlenecks,and now the upheaval in Ukraine.A

280、midst this uncer-tainty,there is clear recognition that the world has moved towards a new era of digital technology and software.Anne Steiner,CEO at consulting firm Cprime,explains,“those companies that truly embrace and master large-scale technological and software deliv-ery will define the economi

281、c landscape of the 21st century.”For instance,“BMW no longer con-siders itself a car manufacturing com-pany but as software on wheels,”Steiner says.“Soon,over 50%of BMWs employees will be software engineers.Talent acquisition and retention will be critical if were going to survive this new age.”Simi

282、larly,in 2021,VW announced plans to boost its share of in-house car software development from 10%to 60%by 2025.Lean-agile thinkingBusinesses must develop organisa-tional agility to compete.Data centric-ity will allow them to pivot and make decisions faster and shorten the time to market,which will l

283、ead to greater profit.Agility needs to be embedded into the culture of an organisation.The way employees work,organise,and behave all need to change.If organisations fail to change,they will lose market share and potentially disappear entirely.Cprime helps steer companies towards this new future.“Ch

284、ange is coming more rapidly and its attacking bigger businesses because,by the nature of their size,its harder for them to change,”Steiner says.Darren Wilmshurst,director,Agility Center of Excellence at Cprime,says,“although big businesses are aware of the need for change,they have largely been stuc

285、k in the past,relying on tra-ditional managerial techniques and frameworks.“Look at Primark as an example.They were forced to close all 375 stores 12 days after initial Covid lockdowns in March 2020.Thats because Primark does not sell online.It lost 800m in revenue.”But Wilmshurst believes that the

286、pandemic has acted as a“boot camp”for more traditional firms,helping them grasp the nettle and realise that it is now or never to go lean and agile.Its all about the productSo,what are the fundamentals needed to take advantage of this change?Wilmshurst says it is about putting much more focus on the

287、 product.“Customers dont want to wait months or years to see new products.You need to get to market faster and part of that is moving from a project mentality to a product mentality,”he says.“You dont want to do the tra-ditional thing creating temporary teams around a project and then crashing them

288、when it is complete.You want to create long-lived,stable,persistent,and high performing teams aligned around a product,solution,or service.We call this the value stream,and if you want true agility,you need business-level commitment to it.It has never been just a technology thing,it needs to include

289、 finance,HR,marketing,legal,and commer-cial because true value needs to flow across all these functions.”Gus Bjokeroth,managing director of Cprime Europe,says businesses need to create smaller,more agile teams to cope with rapidly emerging prob-lems.“Its hard to move an 18-wheeler uphill.But if you

290、break your organ-isation up into small pieces,with small teams making small incremental changes,you can move the dial more effectively,”he says.“Its about run-ning pilots and tests and using these individual pieces and teams to come together to enable products to go to market more quickly.”Data-cent

291、ricMore effective use of data is also needed,Bjokeroth argues.“Businesses are making more decisions now than they have ever made before.They have to become more data-centric to help them make the right ones.Emotional decisions were fine when you had time to assess and look and smell which way the wi

292、nd was blowing,but now-adays you have to pivot quickly.You need data to show whether a product is taking longer than you hoped for,or when the capacity of your staff is getting shorter.”He says tools such as agile software Jira can help give businesses this extra visibility.“You can capture whether

293、your teams are set up around value and if you are prioritising things so that you can pivot.Its all about the ability to pivot,”he adds.Leadership driveTo be successful,support for these tools and processes has to come from the top of the organisation.Leaders need to buy into and drive change.In sho

294、rt,they need to move from a fixed to a growth mindset.“Some traditional leaders might say I am a very success-ful person,and I wouldnt be where I am today if I didnt know a lot of stuff,Wilmshurst states.“But some of what they know,which was right even two years ago,is now the wrong stuff.”Those lea

295、ders need to understand we are in a new age and that they need to accept that they may be digitally naive,while 25%of their employees are digitally native and know more about technology than their employ-ers.Leadership in 2022 requires a cul-tural shift,where leaders must do as much,or more,learning

296、 than anybody else.They need to lead the changes to systems and ways of working.Only by making those structural changes will they change the habits and behav-iours in a way that means their people will feel more inclined to stay with the organisation a positive cultural shift.”Leaders also need to t

297、ackle the frozen middle of their company.For example,a project manager with 25 years of experience who cant see any value in the new way of agile working and believes the move from projects to product puts their future and their ability to pay their mortgage at risk.“There is the fear factor because

298、 they sit in the middle of an organisa-tion,so when an attempt is made to change something,they can often try and block it.They will do everything in their power to say no,”Wilmshurst says.“It frustrates the teams that want to change and the leaders who cant see the change happening.But,as a leader,

299、you cant ignore them because they still have valuable skills and job options.They need to come with you on the journey.A huge amount of what Cprime does is work with leaders,employees,and HR to shape the new ways of working and coach the teams to embed the change and futureproof peoples jobs.”Steine

300、r says every employee in a busi-ness needs to ask themselves whether they are ready for agile change.“Think about your organisation for a minute.How fast can your organisation turn?Are you a jet ski that can turn on a dime?Or are you one of those huge barges?”she says.“The pace of change is accelera

301、ting,and you need to get on board in the leanest,fastest vehicle you can find.”For more information,visit are making more decisions now than they have ever made before.They have to become more data-centric to help them make the right onesTSoftware engineers are perfection-ists and this is a good thi

302、ng.It is a good thing when it comes to the iron-clad security of the banking application on the smartphone in your pocket and it is more particu-larly a good thing when it comes to keeping the apps that run the national grid operational.Programming perfectionistsOK,so the national grid doesnt run on

303、 an app,it runs on a comprehen-sive tier of management software that features heavily custom-built opti-misation and specific controls for its use case.That is not the point.The point is that it works.Software devel-opers call non-functional software code brittle or flaky,both of which are quite emo

304、tive terms for something so essentially virtual and digital.Because they work with algo-rithmic logic in a mathematically defined world,software profession-als see a comparatively chiaroscu-ro view of the world.Something is either correct or it isnt.While this black-and-white approach wont necessari

305、ly work for undertakers,teachers or care work-ers,the lessons for businesspeople remain.Look for the negatives,audit for inefficiencies,discover statistical 1Adrian BridgwaterSoutliers,find the superfluous white noise clogging up human workflow systems and address it.We can apply an additional busi-

306、ness-centric layer of empathy and understanding here(please dont fire everybody working at less than 101%capacity tomorrow)and take this mindset forward.Technologists wouldnt leave a book unfinished and often dont leave their keyboards until the sun comes up,if a job isnt complete.Yes,busi-nesspeopl

307、e do that,too,but theyre often looking for ways“around”a problem;software engineers are look-ing for ways to“solve”a problem.When an organisation starts to dovetail this approach across its business function and its tech-nology function,then it arguably becomes the most agile version of itself that

308、it can possibly be.Software engineers are the veterans of agile working,so in an increasingly digital world,can businesspeople learn lessons from their more technical counterparts and apply them to commerce?Le geek,cest chicT O P I C T I T L ESoftware engineer:a programmer of almost any description.

309、Scrum master:responsible for manag-ing team members and the communications between them.QA leader:specialist in quality assurance with good knowledge of regulatory compliance and legislation.Project manager:member of scrum team who works at manage-ment interface level with more exposure to users and

310、 the business function.Systems architect:specialist in systems integration and net-work structure,often tasked with gathering user requirements.Configuration manage-ment specialist:responsible for the code repository inside which the software teams product versions reside.Test engineer:runs unit tes

311、ting(bits of code yet to be integrated into the system),integration testing(the process of integrating code),de-velopment testing(mak-ing sure integrated code works)and wider user acceptance testing,to determine whether peo-ple can actually work with the software.Many of the roles within a typical s

312、oftware engineer-ing team will have a broad-brush designation used for recruitment processes,cus-tomer-facing interactions Roles within an agile development teamand company promotions.Software engineers are of-ten known as just that;soft-ware engineers.But looking in more specific terms at in-ternal

313、 parlance and team lin-go,these engineers typically take on some of the follow-ing roles within the software umbrella,as follows:EThamPhoto via Getty ImagesR A C O N T E U R.N E TA G I L E B U S I N E S S2120If all the business world were software engineers,there would be no human resources function

314、.OK,thats not true the software team still needs payroll,benefits,holiday allocation and information to guide members to the office party.But what the develop-er and IT operations function doesnt typically need is incentivisation.Technologists dont need to be incentivised because they start off with

315、 a hard-wired incentive to make,create and generally be great.The rea-son The Big Bang Theorys Sheldon is super-confident and amusingly smug is that he thinks hes right and that he thinks his work is great.The agile business manager may have to take this lesson with a pinch of salt.A super-confident

316、 approach In what might be a lesson drawn from life,commercial business or perhaps showbusiness,agile software engi-neers love to show off their dexterity with unexpected extras.Sometimes obscured and sometimes more obvi-ous,games developers are notorious for building hidden features,known as Easter

317、 eggs,into their software.Microsoft engineers have incorpo-rated a range of functions and mini-apps into Windows over the years.Many will know the famously hidden(albeit basic)flight simulator that resided behind the core user inter-face in the Excel spreadsheet.There are plenty of other examples,to

318、o,and the Cortana speech interface has carried this effort forwards with a few super-smart sassy replies.Scrum is a project management framework that helps teams work together,and is used frequently in software engineering.Similar to the rugby huddle of the same name,scrum methodology encourages tea

319、ms to self-organise while trying to solve a problem,to learn through experience and to keep improving by reflecting on their wins and losses.Agile technology engineering and the adoption of the“scrum”Software engineers love work.They love what they do and would probably do it even if they didnt need

320、 to work for a living.In fact,most developers have generally spent their spare time coding as“hobbyists”long before they were gainfully employed.What this means is that software professionals intrinsically recog-nise hard work.They understand the effort that goes into good work,they know what it mea

321、ns to the per-son who has carried out the tasks in hand and they know how others will feel about the product or service that a persons work has resulted in.This is the construct around which much of open source is founded.The community contribution model of software application development Makers an

322、d hand shakersEaster-egg engineeringInside the agile software scrumOpen systems of meritocracyoften helps salespeople shine but too much of a good thing is,well,too much,isnt it?The commercial les-son here comes down to why software engineers are happy:its because they are makers who are busy making

323、.This ideal has translated into modern business management already;the maker movements culture that emphasises learning through doing is industry,product and service agnostic.To promote this form of agility,we can begin by just talking to each other.Remember the stereotypes we started with?In fact,e

324、ffective agile software engineering is all about(now sanitised)handshakes and interaction,despite the image of the solitary geek who wants to sit alone at lunch.As the Agile Manifesto once again specifies,the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a devel-opment t

325、eam is by face-to-face con-versation.“Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.”In terms of business agility,theres a clear message here and it comes down to competency.The developer is saying:“Not only was I able to build you a product with everything you wante

326、d,I was also able to use my engineering prow-ess to create features that you may never even find or use.”In business,we call that being service-centric,being customer focused or going the extra mile.It is right there in the Agile Manifestos core 12-principle mantra,if we look for it:“Continuous atte

327、ntion to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.”Business agility can stem from the same DNA.The“if a jobs worth doing”mantra has been around since biblical times for a reason.Organisations that successfully instil this approach in their own operations at a deeply granular level as lo

328、w-level as software code can build operational agility based upon a precise knowledge of what resources and competencies they run with on any given day.approach to building software through“sprints”short time peri-ods when a team works together to complete a specific task is rooted in self-organisat

329、ion and adaptability.This central truth means that var-ious coding tasks could be shared between individuals in those instances where cross-functional competencies exist.Once again,this statement is made in the context of software application development but it could be completely applied to busi-ne

330、ss if we remove one word:cod-ing.Now that its trs chic to be geek and we live in an age where software runs the world,perhaps its time for our agile IT engineers to clean off their rugby boots and get the key to the corporate washroom.championed belonging-focused teamwork and inclusivity before it b

331、ecame a favourite of post-millennial management consultants.Open source strives to promote sys-tems of meritocracy over any hierar-chy.People,products and code should be brought to the top of the pile if they are good,not because they have good connections,good parents or a good education.Its what y

332、ou do that mat-ters and thats all that matters.The Agile Manifesto stipulates that we should“build projects around motivated individuals.Give them the environment and support they need,and trust them to get the job done.”The straightforward lesson for busi-ness is to recognise effort,poten-tial and

333、drive as well as innovative thought and action.Additionally,we should recognise good work in any form.Open source wants programmers to submit“code commits”,but it also wants non-tech-nical support for documentation(and its international translation)and commercial strategy so,yes,busi-nesspeople,that means you.Picture our software developer hunched over their keyboard.Some of that stereotype is sti