Agile seems to be sweeping the consulting industry recently as a methodology of choice for business transformation. While this buzzword started as trend in software development, it’s quickly been embraced by organizations looking to implement self-organized, cross-functional teams.
In these five agile articles, consultants from the ON THE MARK team provide insight on the development of agile and its application in various areas of an organization.
Agile Articles from the ON THE MARK team
1. How to Create an Agile Organization
An Agile organization is an organization made up of hundreds, if not thousands of creative empowered teams collaborating with customers to develop solutions. This is a different set of design criteria with its own design challenges. In addition, an Agile organization is appropriate in some environments, but more often, it is an organization that is agile that meets the strategic need.
2. Exploring the Early History of Agile Thinking: Trist & Deming
The creation of agile processes, systems and organizations demands a different way of thinking about the design and management of work. It puts the responsibility of making decisions about the day to day work in the hands of people who do the work, with the measures they need in their hands to ensure decisions are based on knowledge, not assumption.
Learn about how modern agile got started through the work of Eric Trist and W. Edwards Deming.
3. What is the Manager’s Role in Agile?
We know that Scrum teams are a fundamental building block of the Agile approach. The guiding principal behind the Scrum team is that they are self-organizing teams. However, this does not mean that there is no need for managers in the organisation. What is needed are the right behaviors in the right place, at the right time, and the right manager role in Agile.
4. Ten Differences Between Agile and Waterfall Methodologies
Through a comparison of agile and waterfall methodologies, we can see two different managerial logics for organization. Agile is a self-managing team. Technology and an increasingly fast-moving environment have produced conditions for self-managing teams to become mainstreamed through the agile development model. On the other hand, the bureaucratic organization has also been around us for such a long time that hierarchy and control is deeply embedded into our default thinking.
So, what are the differences between agile and waterfall in practice?
5. When to Use Agile Methodology in an Operating Model
The question ‘do we want an agile organization’ should be rhetorical, as with the current business climate there are very few who will answer no. However, Agile approaches are rarely needed, or even appropriate everywhere. This, of course, then begs the all-important question:
Where in the operating model do we deploy the Agile approach?
ON THE MARK (OTM) is a leading organization design firm with offices in Phoenix and London. Our experienced team has completed over 405 redesigns & business transformations in our nearly 30 years of business. Contact us to learn more about our practical solutions to challenges in organization design, capability building, or business integration.
