In this digital transformation era, companies are striving hard to prepare teams that yield predictable outcomes and provide software that satisfies the timelines and demands of the user. Today, following Agile practices and methodologies has become a kind of norm for such teams to meet the business requirements.
It shall be highlighted that Agile is not the purpose but the effective mean to achieve the business goals. Having also in mind that there is no any all-in-one solution that fits all needs, it becomes clear that proper tailoring of the structures and processes is required so that to avoid Procrustes bed phenomenon.
The tricky point here is that, tailoring is not required only among different companies but most of the times among different units and departments inside the same company as well! On the other hand, harmonized ways of working are a key aspect in order to enable better tracking, monitoring and focus on the business goals in organization level, as well as harmonization is vital in order to have all plans working together for the achievement of an overall strategic objective.
Thus, neither one solution-model for all nor a different solution for each organization’s initiative can be an effective answer to this problem. It seems like a deadlock but still there are approaches to follow just by decomposing the view of organizational and operational levels respectively. By that, a common framework can be drawn which will sketch all the structures and processes that are visible and directly interfaced with organizational level while the proper flavoring can be picked-up internally in the operational level so that each case’s specific needs are addressed in a systematic way.
Of course, all above needs quite hard work and continuous adaptations through the learning that is popping out from the feedback loops created. It is a long journey and all views are needed in order to stabilize the proper framework, find-out proper answers for specific operational needs as well as to fine-tune the balance between the framework and the internal space for flavoring.
To be continued..
Author: Kostas Svoukas.