Three Challenges in the Way of Enterprise Agility
Companies must increasingly prioritise agility and the capacity to quickly adjust to change, to comply with the market demand. It is now necessary and not just a “nice-to-have.” Furthermore, this extends well beyond helping to expand Enterprise Agility agile software development teams. The entire organisation must be on board. That is Enterprise Agility. Check out our Agile training to learn more about Enterprise Agility.
What is Enterprise Agility?
These days, the majority of IT and development teams operate, at least in part, according to agile principles. Other divisions inside the company, however, frequently are not. Because of the stress this causes, development teams frequently aren’t able to attain their full potential. This is due to the fact that working in an Agile manner is challenging when project management, funding, resourcing, and other activities are handled in a more conventional manner.
Additionally, non-technical departments that are not operating in an agile environment, such as marketing, finance, or HR, are slower to incorporate consumer feedback and have a harder time managing change. As a result, opportunities are lost, the ROI is poorer, and market share is lost.
Enterprise Agility, which involves implementing the principles of Agile and Lean across the entire organisation, frequently using a scaled Agile framework like SAFe, is the answer to these problems. True enterprise agility takes into account all areas of the company’s operations and has an impact on how everyone in the company approaches strategy, funding, management, and customer value delivery.
What challenges stand in the way of Enterprise Agility?
It makes sense that attaining enterprise agility is a difficult task. Changing how the entire company operates is not something to be taken lightly. Working with clients experiencing significant Agile transformations, we’ve seen that many of the obstacles they encounter on the path to Enterprise Agility fall into three categories:
- Lack of visibility
- Not being focused on value delivery
- Failing to effectively train
- Lack of visibility
As companies start to pursue enterprise agility, it becomes evident right away that visibility needs to increase throughout the company. With few exceptions, these businesses discover that employees below the senior level are unfamiliar with the mission, vision, and strategy of the organisation. The established flow of value to the client would be difficult for many staff to describe. Additionally, not everyone can clearly understand the frameworks and processes that the organisation is trying to follow.
This lack of visibility may result in wasteful rework, compliance problems, and inefficiencies. Additionally, when employees don’t fully see how what they’re doing fits into the greater picture, they become less engaged.
Alignment is achieved in a truly agile organisation from the C-suite to the newest entry-level worker, making strategy clear at the highest level and trickling down to the day-to-day processes that best support value delivery.
- Not being focused on value delivery
Speaking of value delivery, another significant obstacle firms have on the path to Enterprise Agility is a lack of focus in this area.
Traditionally, the org charts have served as the foundation for most organisations’ business units. Their organisational system for planning, management, and finance revolves around sizable projects with detailed annual plans. These conventional models do not support agility. Agile businesses need to shift from being project-focused to becoming product-focused.
This is accomplished by identifying value streams and structuring the company’s operations around them. Without a process for communicating that plan to all stakeholders and a clear portfolio or product vision, that is challenging to do. But once it is accomplished, it breaks down organisational silos inside the company and directs everyone’s efforts towards the client.
These businesses also lack useful metrics that would enable them to assess if they are successfully providing value to their clients or where they may make improvements.
- Failure to effectively train
Lack of effective training prioritisation is the third major issue businesses encounter on the path to agility.
A large amount of change management and, in certain situations, an entirely new method of working is required for an Agile transformation to be successful. If the shift is to be effective, training and support are essential. Training ought to centre on:
- The modification and its justification.
- The benefit of the selected framework.
- The benefits of the current agile technologies and how to use them.
- The justifications for the procedures in place.
It will be less difficult to shift to new ways of working if you provide enough training and support. Employees are far more likely to support the switch to Enterprise Agility if they are aware of what is expected of them and feel comfortable doing it.
Conclusion
You can learn more about Enterprise Agility by checking out the Agile training online.
