AGILE
A revisit to an old friend.
For a period of time in my career I was an Applications Developer, principally with a spin towards GIS. As such, I used AGILE methodologies to deliver and release changes to applications. But this week I have been dipping in and out of BJSS ENTERPRISE AGILE — Practical insight and methods for successful IT delivery (fourth edition 2016), not to refresh on the development side of AGILE but for a book that I’m working on in my spare time.
I picked up my copy of this book many moons ago at an AWS event in London, but you can obtain a more up-to-date ebook edition from the BJSS website. I’ve not compared the two editions, although I doubt that much has changed — perhaps around the methods and approaches around sprints? But my reasons for revisiting this old friend is more about the pretext to the change, before development or code sprints, in a chapter that details the challenges of Agility.
In this post I just want to pick up on a a few phrases that I’ve highlighted in a section of the book around the notion of Digital Transformation as a driver or challenge for agility and therefore change; and to share some thoughts and views. Now, I’m sure that many that read this post are far more clued up on Digital Transformation than I, so I appolgise if my views are a bit narrow and simplistic. For me the key phrase that is principally underpinning the book that I am trying to bring together is that “successfully delivering change is first and foremost about people”. This is simply because without people, chiefly the end user, there would be no reason for change.
“Consumers are increasingly fickle”. Identified as a thing back in pre-pandemic times, this statement still stands today. Customers / consumers change attitudes towards brands swiftly and for a wide range of reasons, money, perceptions through social and media coverage, and ethics; are perhaps the initial reasons I would list. This shift in brand, be that hardware, service provider, software/application or even OS, understandably makes it harder to second guess the technology direction in which to deliver a product or service when change has been identified. Change is further complicated with shifts in attitudes being rapid, measured in days, weeks or months, as well as on a global scale, such is the pace of change in a modern world. The rapid appearance of alternatives to X (Twitter) and the exodus from it stands as a modern example.
Delivering change in such a short time scale is a challenge even in the most forward of thinking and extensively funded companies in the private sector, if not impossible for the public sector or those companies that don’t have the time, money or resources to keep up with the changing landscape of consumer attitudes.
For the IT leads, their internal consumers (aka members of staff) are equally a challenge to agility or change, as they too are fickle. Members of staff (just like consumers) are becoming more technological savvy and aren’t afraid to ask questions, research the internet, poll social media or even ask a friend about the latest or greatest technology, or ways of tackling a work issue with newer or alternative technologies. In addition these savvy staff see off-the-shelf devices, services and applications offering a better productivity experience than the services/solutions offered by the organisation. I have witnessed this, and even been guilty of it myself!
On the other hand, many organizations have employees who may not be particularly tech-savvy. This presents additional challenges when it comes to implementing changes, including the need for upskilling, training, and fostering a ‘cultural shift’ in how tasks are approached. Consequently, this can lead to feelings of resentment and discontent among the workforce.
The challenges of delivering change, through a digital transformation lens, revolves around effectively engaging with individuals and groups of people both within and outside the organisation, and bringing them on the journey. This dialogue should, in theory, help streamline the myriad of technology options (hardware, software, development platforms etc) available to deliver change and give focus towards the end goals of change.|
For some all of the above may well seem common sense, and may reflect how they themselves undertake and tackle change at an early stage of change. And if you are one of these people or organisations that does use the attitude of ‘people first’, then I applaud you. But if you or your organsisation have never approached change like this, then I would urge you to read the first chapter of the bjss Enterprise AGILE book and I’m sure that you’ll have that epiphany moment.
