In our last blog, we have seen how we fail when we focus on Agile over Business outcome and how we can implement agile around business using the Star approach. If you have not read the last blog, check out our last blog, Agile over Business- a perfect path to failure.
In this blog, we are going to cover how agility can help us achieve business outcome and thus become a high performer.
Let’s double-click on each dimension of the Star Model.
1. Purpose:
Organizations following Agile should build distributed, adaptable approaches to value creation to suit the constantly changing needs of all their customers, agreeing to frequently integrating external partners directly into the value creation system. Some of the key practices to follow
Key Practices:
- Having a shared purpose and vision to create value for the customer by building distributed and adaptable approaches
- Identifying and capitalizing on opportunities in customer or stakeholder feedback or changing preferences, or market demands
- Having a flexible resource allocation to the most needed areas of focus, based on the opportunity identified or priorities
- Based on the progress, taking a strategic guidance and acting upon it to shift processes, capital, technology, or people
2. Team Cohesiveness:
Key Practices:
- Enabling empowered teams who are self-organizing with clear shared accountabilities defined
- Ensuring that teams have clear and transparent communication
- Building Teams around value creation i.e., feature-based teams over component team structure
- Empowering and encouraging teams to have high collaboration between them
3. Agile ways of working:
Key Practices:
- Promoting Frequent iterations and experimentation
- Encouraging Faster feedback loops
- Ensuring that the Agile Principles and values are followed irrespective of whether any framework is applied or not, keeping transparency, mutual respect and decentralization intact
- Fostering Continuous learning culture within teams
- Taking the Lean approach- Eliminating waste, Work in Progress limit, flow, etc.
4. Environment
Key Practices:
- Culture- Creating an ecosystem that puts people at the center, which engages and empowers everyone in the organization. They can then create value quickly, collaboratively, and effectively.
- Decentralized decision making- Giving freedom for taking decision at each level through networking structure instead of the hierarchical way of decision making
- Psychological Safety: Designing and building open physical and virtual settings that allow people to do their job more effectively bringing their creativity and innovations at work
- Leadership: Building leadership that coaches and mentors promote learning, entrepreneurial mindset, empower teams with system thinking, design thinking, lean operations etc.
5. Development Practices:
Key Practices:
- Emerging Technology, Architecture, tools, etc.
- Best development and delivery practices
- Continuous Integration and Continuous delivery
Measurable outcomes:
Conclusion:
To achieve business outcomes, not only just teams and their ways of working but also the structures and support systems surrounding Agile teams must be completely rewired.
The operating model is a system, and changing just one dimension- Agile ways of working without addressing the others may cripple it. Organizations must consequently pay continual attention to the operational model’s Purpose, Team Cohesiveness, Environment, and Development practice dimensions along with the measurable outcomes.
Measurable outcomes are key to progress. Without measurement, it would be difficult to pivot and scale.
– Ramya Shastri
