by Jenny Boronyak | Sep 10, 2014 | Agile, Uncategorized |
When the term “agile” comes up in a conversation these days, the mind often jumps to agile software development. But there’s so much more to being agile than delivering software products iteratively and incrementally. If our planning or change strategies aren’t agile, we can forget about being able to deliver the maximum amount of business value possible to our customers. Our entire organization must be agile in order to be able to “keep our finger on the pulse” and rapidly adapt to meet today’s demands. On top of being agile, the most successful organizations out there are also lean mean machines, capable of effectively managing the portfolio to avoid surprises and respond to threats quickly and efficiently. In our webinar last month, The Path to Business Agility, Enfocus Solutions’ CEO John Parker discussed the four components that make up a lean agile business: Enterprise Agile Delivery The agile organization must have the ability to deliver products and services iteratively and incrementally based on discovered and validated customer needs. Agile software delivery is usually the first place organizations start when adopting agile. Many organizations have yet to move onto implementing agile in other areas of the organization, and limit their focus to the responsibilities of the agile team. In reality, the agile team only makes up one part of Enterprise Agile Delivery, and Enterprise Agile Delivery only makes up one of four fundamentals that must be addressed for the organization to be considered agile. In the Lean Business Agility Framework, Enterprise Agile Delivery is achieved via three key elements: Agile Teams (Scrum or Kanban)—Support day-to-day work of self-organized teams (using...
by Jenny Boronyak | Jul 25, 2014 | Agile, Uncategorized |
Business agility is more important now than ever, according to a recent report by Forrester Research. In the report, they define business agility as “the quality that allows an enterprise to embrace market and operational changes as a matter of routine.” As Forrester astutely points out, seventy percent of the companies that existed on the Fortune 1000 list ten years ago are no longer in service—the number one cause being the inability to adapt to change. Many organizations have adopted agile methods for software or product development. Agile methods have helped organizations deliver more rapidly, increase customer satisfaction, and improve quality. However, agile development alone does not make the enterprise agile. An agile business must be able to make rapid changes that affect people, processes, data, technology, and rules to support threats and opportunities in the market. The Lean Business Agility Framework™ is here to guide you through choosing the methods that will enable change and achieve business agility in your organization. There are many great existing frameworks and methodologies for implementing agile best practices. However, the Lean Business Agility Framework combines all best practices into one comprehensive guide. The Lean Business Agility Framework was developed by Enfocus Solutions to help organizations visualize what is needed to transform to an agile enterprise. The framework incorporates current trends and integrates various methods from sources such as the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe), ITIL®, Lean Thinking, and Lean Startup® into a cohesive approach for moving to business agility. The framework is intended to serve only as a guide and requires an organization to selectively choose the methods that best fit their organization...
by Jenny Boronyak | May 22, 2014 | Agile, Uncategorized |
When it comes to software development projects, agility should be focused on delivering business value in increments, and not developing software in cycles. While software development is a major aspect, it’s not the end goal of our projects. Too often when following agile development, the team is uncertain or unclear of what to build that will actually deliver the value set out for at project inception. Then, what happens is the team starts coding before understanding what really needs to be built, which is a very expensive way to validate that the solution meets customer and business needs. If there is no feedback until the end of a big project, it might be too late or costly to adjust. Instead, it is prudent to get as much feedback as possible, as early in the project as possible. As Eric Ries, author of Lean Startup, puts it, don’t we all want to “avoid building products that nobody wants?” Recent Standish Group research shows that 20% of Features are used regularly and 50% of Features are hardly ever or never used. According to the study, the gray area is the 30% of Features and functions that get used sometimes or infrequently. All of these Features and functions that are never or barely used are causing higher costs, lower value, and longer cycle times, resulting in lower customer satisfaction. Focusing on the 20% of the Features that give you 80% of the value will maximize the investment in software development and improve overall user satisfaction. To focus on the 20% of Features that give the most value, you need to validate early....
by Jenny Boronyak | Feb 24, 2014 | Project Management, Uncategorized |
Even though it’s a methodology designed for product management teams, Lean Startup provides a lot of good concepts and principles for project managers looking to make sure their projects are successful. And while the word “startup” is in the name, its core tenets can actually be applied to any organization, whether a startup or a Fortune 500 company. “The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasize fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.” – The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries If we take this quote from author and Lean Startup pioneer Eric Ries and replace the phrases “a startup” and “Lean Startup” with the phrase “an organization,” the statement would still be true. Any organization wants to figure out the right thing to build as quickly as possible, not just startups. With agile development being the latest craze, we all want to emphasize fast iteration, and experience has taught us all that customer insight is at the core of success. Many of the lessons and principles in Lean Startup are indeed tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs and new endeavors; however, many of them also apply to project management initiatives in any company. 50% of features and functions are rarely or never used, while 30% get used sometimes or infrequently, according to...
