Gain Actionable Insights!
We are hosting a special session about AI-Driven Agile featuring Dr Jeff Sutherland, the inventor of Scrum and co-signatory of the Agile manifesto.
You’ll leave with real, usable advice, not just theory.
Key Takeaways
Tell Me More...
What is Agile?
Agile is a new way of working with a different mindset.
Before Agile, we ran projects with the Waterfall method. The Waterfall project’s success rate (defined by on-time and on-budget delivery) hovers around 22% – 27% when the Standish Group surveys project managers worldwide.
With the Agile way of working, the success rate doubles. On top of that, Agile teams are usually very innovative and frequently deliver products that customers love. They are also speedy to respond to business requests, advocate breaking down departmental silos, and have lower overall management overhead.
The Agile way of working has become the de facto product development method in modern organizations. From its humble beginning in IT, it is now widely used in almost every industry. With the help of Agile, companies can use the “Software development mindset” to develop cars, airplanes, agriculture machinery, capital projects, financial products, and marketing collaterals.
If your company hasn’t started implementing Agile yet, this can be an excellent time to start.
Why should we use Agile?
There are many benefits to working in the Agile way. We can look at this from several perspectives:
People:
Better collaboration and an empowered work environment lead to happier teams.
Project:
More likely to be on time, on budget, with better transparency and predictability. Able to adapt to change.
Working environment:
Less silo, less bureaucracy, and ability to make faster and better decisions on a changing business landscape.
Better product:
Customer-driven development and the ability to gather feedback to optimize the product quickly leads to more potent delivery and stronger business results.
How do we get started with Agile?
We always start small and then gradually scale up after initial success. This will allow us to control the pace and manage the change risk easier.
Step 1
Understand what Agile stands for and how it differs from traditional projects and product development.
Step 2
Identify a project with 2-3 teams, ideally 20-30 people. Set this up as a pilot project.
Step 3
Train everyone involved in this project, including the senior management and leadership team.
Step 4
Create Scrum Teams.
Step 5
Convert your existing project requirements to Agile requirements
Step 6
Start working.
Step 7
Run the project for 2-3 months
Step 8
Look at the project status when we reach a milestone, optimize our work process, and repeat step 6.
Developing products the Agile way means we need to collaborate with our business users and customers more. We gather their feedback periodically and immediately change our product based on their feedback.
This may be new to an organization that just started its Agile journey. You will notice the business outcome improves substantially and love the result you are getting.
Is Agile suitable for my projects?
Agile has been around since 2001. From its humble beginning in the IT industry, it is everywhere and has become the de facto way to develop competitive products.
The most successful companies in the world use Agile – Apple, Tesla, SpaceX, Microsoft, Google, and John Deere, to name a few. Dr. Sutherland said, and I quote: “It’s not a question of whether. It’s a question of how much.” Dr. Sutherland believes a better question would be: “How Agile are you and your business?”
For the past 20 years, projects have been gradually moving to the Agile Space. From the most sophisticated projects that build rockets to the biggest, most demanding capital projects, people are finding a way to leverage Agile now.
If your projects do not sound as complicated as these, you will likely find case studies and templates suitable to help you get started.
Can you tell me more about Agile certifications and credentials?
The first question to ask is, “Do you need it?”
For true Agile practitioners, using the knowledge to develop great products that win in the market is the critical result to fight for. Agile certifications only help you to land a job. It gives you basic knowledge so you can get started. You will only complete the circle if you can practice it at work and keep improving your skills to help your organization improve.
If you decide to obtain a Scrum certification, 3 top-tier accreditation associations exist worldwide. They are Scrum Alliance, Scrum.org, and Scrum Inc.
Next, you need to decide which trainer should be your teacher. Please read “Are there different levels of Scrum Trainers in the Agile industry?” to learn more about the accreditation associations and steps to identify good trainers.
How long does Agile Transformation take?
This depends on many factors, including how big your organization is, how closely aligned you are with Agile currently, how many resources you are willing to commit to this, and whether you have an experienced team to guide you through the transformation process.
From my experience leading about 30 Agile Transformation cases, here is the rough estimate you can refer to based on your company’s size:
- 30 people or less: visible result in three months. End-to-end transformation in about 6 months
- 200 people or less: This will be a 2-stage transformation. First, you should pilot a project of 30 people, which needs the same time as mentioned above. Then, you continue to transform more teams. The End-to-end transformation in about 2 years.
- >Over 1000 people: This will be a 3-stage transformation. We should be able to do the 30 people and 200 people cases first and enjoy some success. After that, we will extend our coverage gradually. For an organization this big, it is hard to do end-to-end transformation. You will usually hit satisfactory coverage in 2-5 years.
Is Agile for IT only?
There are many successful cases beyond IT. SpaceX built rockets that fly back to the base after launch, John Deere converted their African sales team to Agile. They enjoyed record-breaking sales in Africa, and Malaysian Airport is using Agile to improve the customer experience.
Agile is now in every industry and many products. If your goal is to succeed and thrive in this new economy or perhaps to survive in a competitive market. Agile will be essential to you.
If you’re not leveraging Agile, your competitor will. In that case, you will find that you will be facing an uphill battle all the time.
It will be challenging to triumph against a well-executed Agile competitor unless you are more Agile than them.
What are the differences between Agile and Waterfall?
The key differences are how you will work and the mindset and practices you will align to when working.
We need to align with the Agile mindset to work in the Agile way. The traditional waterfall mindset emphasizes processes and tools, comprehensive documentation, contract negotiations, and detailed planning. The Agile mindset emphasizes individual interaction over process and tools, working product over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiations, and responding to change over having a detailed plan.
When we work with a different mindset, we will change our practices to align with it. We will use frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban to help break down corporate silos to enable collaboration. We will establish a working cadence and use a frequent show-and-tell technique to receive customer feedback.
The result is a modern and advanced way of running projects and developing products, with a greater chance of success.
Can we combine Agile and Waterfall together?
The short answer is yes if you’re in a certain transition period. That period could be lengthy.
The goal of an Agile Transformation is to move out of the traditional waterfall process and embrace the Agile approach as quickly and successfully as possible. You will find the traditional system less desirable once you’ve transitioned to the Agile mindset and the Agile approach.
This is like buying a new Tesla car when you already have a 2005 Toyota car. It takes time to transition to and get used to the new car because the mechanics and drive are quite different. You can use both cars if you want to. However, once you’re fully into your new vehicle, you will find that it provides significant advantages and little reason to switch back. Once you love your Tesla, it is uncommon to drive the 2005 Toyota again other than to relive some memorable moments. 🙂
How can I participate in Agile community?
There are some non-commercial Agile communities in Malaysia. Agile Malaysia has been around for a while. You can join the Agile Malaysia community on Facebook and attend the local meet-ups.
Scrum 60 hosts this event and is the latest community you can join and contribute to.
The key difference between the two Agile communities is that Agile Malaysia supports Agnostic Agile. Scrum 60 focuses on spreading Dr. Sutherland’s True Scrum knowledge so that we can succeed in helping our companies implement True Scrum.
Both are free to join and non-commercialized.
Both are supported by true Agile enthusiasts.
You can also take a look at Agile Singapore and Agile 66 Thailand. Agile 66 Thailand is doing a great job spreading Agile knowledge in Thailand.
Organized by
Questions or enquiries
You can contact us at
Email: romanoff@ciagile.com
WhatsApp: +6019-2981055
