business-agility

What Is Business Agility? Business Agility In A Nutshell

Business / By /

Business agility describes the capabilities or behaviors that give an organization the freedom, flexibility, and resilience to carry out its purpose and provide customer value. Business agility is an operating model for the next generation of businesses, helping them thrive in unpredictable markets, be adaptable to change, and reduce costs without sacrificing quality.

AspectExplanation
Concept OverviewBusiness Agility is a holistic and dynamic approach that enables organizations to adapt, innovate, and thrive in an ever-changing and uncertain business environment. It involves an organization’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to emerging opportunities and challenges, making it more resilient and competitive. Business Agility extends beyond agile methodologies used in software development to encompass an entire organization’s culture, processes, and mindset, fostering a culture of adaptability and continuous improvement.
Key PrinciplesBusiness Agility is guided by several key principles:
1. Adaptability: Embracing change as a natural part of doing business and being prepared to adjust strategies and operations accordingly.
2. Customer-Centricity: Prioritizing the needs and preferences of customers and stakeholders in decision-making and product development.
3. Collaboration: Encouraging cross-functional collaboration and breaking down silos within the organization.
4. Continuous Learning: Promoting a culture of continuous learning and experimentation.
5. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Using data and analytics to inform decisions and measure outcomes.
6. Agile Values: Incorporating agile values, such as transparency, responsiveness, and flexibility, into organizational practices.
7. Leadership Support: Engaging leadership to champion and model agile behaviors.
ComponentsBusiness Agility encompasses several components:
1. Agile Teams: Implementing agile practices at the team level to increase responsiveness and productivity.
2. Lean Principles: Applying lean principles to streamline processes, reduce waste, and improve efficiency.
3. Customer Feedback: Gathering and incorporating customer feedback into product development and decision-making.
4. Agile Frameworks: Adopting agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe to scale agile practices across the organization.
5. Organizational Culture: Nurturing a culture of openness, trust, and adaptability.
6. DevOps: Integrating development and operations teams to accelerate product delivery.
7. Change Management: Employing effective change management strategies to support cultural shifts.
ImplementationImplementing Business Agility involves:
1. Assessing Current State: Evaluating the organization’s current culture, processes, and practices to identify areas for improvement.
2. Setting Clear Goals: Defining specific business outcomes and goals that align with agility principles.
3. Agile Training: Providing training and coaching to staff at all levels to build agile skills and mindsets.
4. Pilot Projects: Launching pilot agile projects to test and refine agile practices and frameworks.
5. Scaling Practices: Expanding agile practices to other parts of the organization and scaling agile frameworks as needed.
6. Continuous Improvement: Continuously assessing and refining agile practices and processes based on feedback and outcomes.
Benefits and ImpactBusiness Agility offers several benefits and impacts:
1. Faster Time-to-Market: Accelerating product development and delivery cycles.
2. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Meeting customer needs more effectively through iterative product development.
3. Improved Efficiency: Reducing waste, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies in processes.
4. Innovation: Fostering a culture of innovation and experimentation.
5. Competitive Advantage: Gaining a competitive edge by responding swiftly to market changes.
6. Employee Engagement: Increasing employee satisfaction and engagement by involving them in decision-making and improvement efforts.
7. Risk Mitigation: Being better prepared to mitigate risks and adapt to unforeseen challenges.
Challenges and RisksChallenges in achieving Business Agility may include resistance to change, organizational silos, and difficulties in scaling agile practices. Risks can involve misalignment between agile principles and the organization’s existing culture, as well as a lack of leadership support and commitment to agility.

Understanding business agility

The world of business has never been more dynamic. Organizations of all sizes are struggling to remain relevant to their customers, whose expectations have never been higher.

What’s more, employees are searching for more empowerment, clarity, and meaning in their roles.

It’s important to think of business agility as a common thread that runs through an organization, binding everyone together. Every employee is responsible for agility.

Indeed, a business is only as agile as its least agile division.

Rather predictably, business agility has a customer-centric focus. This means listening to the needs of the customer and meeting them as quickly as possible by creating superior user experiences. 

Business agility helps the organization proactively respond to market changes or emerging opportunities with innovative solutions.

It also facilitates a suitable response to internal and external threats – whether they be commercial, legal, technological, social, or political in nature.

The business agility framework

The business agility framework consists of twelve interacting domains across four dimensions centered around the customer.

Proficiency in each domain across all areas of the organization must be achieved before the benefits of business agility are realized.

Let’s take a general look at the four domains and the dimensions they incorporate.

Leadership domain

One team

Business agility requires a one-team mindset where creativity and collaboration work toward shared goals.

These goals span departments, functions, and teams across the organization.

People management

Leaders need to recruit, hire, nurture and develop recruits with a strong organizational fit. They must actively embody mission and culture.

Strategic ability

Leaders must also formulate and communicate adaptive strategies and empower teams to innovate by identifying new opportunities.

Operations domain

Structural agility

To embrace change with relative ease and little disruption, the right structures need to be in place.

Process agility

Similarly, operations need to adapt and evolve as required to continually meet customer value expectations.

Enterprise agility

Here, business operations governance must encourage and facilitate innovation as opposed to stifling creative growth.

Individuals domain

Craft excellence

Business agility recognizes excellence as the ability for individuals to take advantage of emergent opportunities for customers.

Growth mindset

growth-mindset-vs-fixed-mindset
fixed mindset believes their intelligence and talents are fixed traits that cannot be developed. The two mindsets were developed by American psychologist Carol Dweck while studying human motivation. Both mindsets are comprised of conscious and subconscious thought patterns established at a very young age. In adult life, they have profound implications for personal and professional success. Individuals with a growth mindset devote more time and effort to achieving difficult goals and by extension, are less concerned with the opinions or abilities of others. Individuals with a fixed mindset are sensitive to criticism and may be preoccupied with proving their talents to others.

Individuals must also be open to continuous change and personal development in sometimes ambiguous environments. Importantly, they also need to be comfortable with making mistakes.

Ownership and accountability

Employees who are invested in customers and customer work tend to make better decisions and can adapt to change quickly.

Relationships domain

Workforce

Business agility requires an empowered and passionate workforce aligned with the company mission and strategy. 

Partners

The relationships a business has with partners should be flexible and driven by customer value.

They should not, where possible, be driven by contractual transactions.

Board

Lastly, the board of directors and the leaders of an organization should have an open, collaborative working relationship.

A focus on the customer and long-term success should always be maintained, which helps the business resist the temptation of short-term wins.

When and How to Apply Business Agility:

Business agility can be applied in various organizational scenarios:

  1. Digital Transformation: Embrace agility to navigate digital transformation, which often involves adopting new technologies and business models.
  2. Startups and Small Businesses: Smaller organizations can use agility to compete with larger incumbents by being more nimble and responsive.
  3. Legacy Enterprises: Established enterprises can adopt agile practices to stay competitive in rapidly evolving markets.
  4. Project Management: Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban can be applied to improve project delivery.

To implement business agility effectively:

  1. Cultural Shift: Cultivate a culture of openness, experimentation, and learning, where employees are encouraged to take calculated risks.
  2. Cross-Functional Teams: Form cross-functional teams that work collaboratively toward shared objectives.
  3. Iterative Feedback: Gather feedback from customers and stakeholders to guide product or service development.
  4. Continuous Improvement: Foster a mindset of continuous improvement, encouraging employees to identify and address inefficiencies.
  5. Leadership Support: Leadership should actively support and model agile behaviors and practices.

Benefits of Business Agility:

Business agility offers numerous benefits:

  1. Faster Response: Organizations can respond rapidly to market changes, gaining a competitive edge.
  2. Enhanced Innovation: Agile organizations are more innovative, continuously developing and delivering new products and services.
  3. Improved Customer Satisfaction: Prioritizing customer needs leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty.
  4. Increased Employee Engagement: Empowered employees are more engaged, contributing their best ideas and efforts.
  5. Reduced Risk: Quick adaptation reduces the risk of obsolescence or market disruption.

Potential Drawbacks of Business Agility:

While business agility has many advantages, it also has potential drawbacks:

  1. Resistance to Change: Cultural shifts and new practices can face resistance from employees accustomed to traditional ways of working.
  2. Complexity: Agile methodologies can be complex to implement, requiring a change management strategy.
  3. Overemphasis on Speed: An exclusive focus on speed may sacrifice quality or overlook critical strategic considerations.

Key takeaways

  • Business agility applies the principles of agile development to an entire organization. Among other things, business agility facilitates adaptability, change responsiveness, and cost reduction.
  • Business agility has a customer-centric focus. Customer needs must be understood and met as quickly as possible by developing a high-quality user experience.
  • Business agility is based on a framework comprising four core dimensions, with each dimension in turn comprised of three domains. Collectively, they detail how business agility may be applied at the organization level.

Key Highlights:

  • Definition of Business Agility: Business agility encompasses the capabilities and behaviors that enable an organization to be flexible, resilient, and customer-focused. It provides an operating model for modern businesses to thrive in unpredictable markets, adapt to change, and maintain quality while reducing costs.
  • Dynamic Business Environment: Businesses are facing dynamic challenges due to high customer expectations and the need for employee empowerment and clarity in their roles. Business agility serves as a unifying thread that binds the entire organization together.
  • Customer-Centric Approach: Business agility centers on understanding customer needs and swiftly delivering superior user experiences. It empowers organizations to proactively respond to market changes, seize opportunities, and address both internal and external threats.
  • Business Agility Framework: The business agility framework consists of four dimensions with twelve interacting domains, all centered around the customer. Each domain’s proficiency is essential for achieving the benefits of business agility.
    • Leadership Domain: Encompasses a one-team mindset, effective people management, and strategic ability.
    • Operations Domain: Focuses on structural agility, process agility, and enterprise agility.
    • Individuals Domain: Highlights craft excellence, the growth mindset, and ownership and accountability.
    • Relationships Domain: Emphasizes the empowered workforce, flexible partnerships, and a collaborative board.
  • Leadership: Leadership plays a crucial role in promoting collaboration, recruiting talent aligned with the company’s mission, and formulating adaptive strategies.
  • Operations: Organizational structures and processes must be adaptable to embrace change and innovation while maintaining customer value expectations.
  • Individuals: Individuals must exhibit a growth mindset, be open to continuous development, and take ownership and accountability for customer-related work.
  • Relationships: A customer-focused workforce, flexible partnerships, and an open, collaborative board contribute to the organization’s agility.
  • Key Takeaways: Business agility applies agile principles to the entire organization, promoting adaptability, change responsiveness, and cost reduction. A customer-centric approach, coupled with the framework’s four dimensions and twelve domains, provides a comprehensive strategy for implementing business agility at the organizational level.
Related FrameworksDescriptionWhen to Apply
Scrum– Scrum is an Agile framework focused on iterative development, with small, cross-functional teams working in sprints to deliver value incrementally. – It emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and adaptability to change.– When aiming to deliver products or services quickly while responding effectively to changing customer needs and market dynamics.
Kanban– Kanban is an Agile framework for visualizing work, limiting work in progress, and maximizing flow. – It uses Kanban boards to visualize work items and their progress through different stages, helping teams identify bottlenecks and optimize their workflow.– When seeking to improve workflow efficiency, visualize work processes, and manage work items effectively without overwhelming teams with too many tasks at once.
Lean Startup– Lean Startup applies Lean principles to startup businesses, focusing on iterative product development and validated learning. – It emphasizes rapid experimentation, customer feedback, and a build-measure-learn approach to product development.– When launching a new business or developing new products or services, applying Lean Startup principles to validate ideas quickly, minimize waste, and iterate based on customer feedback and market insights.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)– Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a framework for scaling Agile across large enterprises, providing guidance on roles, ceremonies, and practices at the team, program, and portfolio levels. – It offers various configurations to suit different organizational contexts and scales.– When scaling Agile practices across large organizations with multiple teams and dependencies, implementing SAFe to align teams, synchronize delivery, and ensure consistency and transparency across the enterprise.
Disciplined Agile (DA)– Disciplined Agile (DA) is a toolkit that provides guidance on Agile and Lean practices, offering options for tailoring Agile approaches to various contexts. – It includes strategies for choosing the right Agile lifecycle, selecting appropriate practices, and optimizing workflows based on the organization’s goals and constraints.– When navigating complex organizational environments or regulatory constraints, leveraging the flexibility of DA to tailor Agile practices to specific contexts and optimize processes for delivery success.
Feature-Driven Development (FDD)– Feature-Driven Development (FDD) is an Agile framework focused on delivering features incrementally. – It emphasizes domain modeling, feature ownership, and regular releases to ensure rapid delivery of high-quality software.– When developing large-scale software systems with complex requirements, applying FDD to break down features into manageable chunks, promote collaboration among team members, and deliver working features iteratively.
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)– Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is an Agile framework that provides a structured approach to project delivery. – It emphasizes user involvement, iterative development, and prioritization of requirements based on business need.– When delivering projects within fixed timeframes and budgets, utilizing DSDM to prioritize requirements based on business value, involve stakeholders throughout the development process, and ensure that the delivered solution meets customer needs and expectations.
Lean Software Development– Lean Software Development applies Lean principles to software development, focusing on customer value, eliminating waste, and continuous improvement. – It emphasizes delivering value quickly, optimizing the whole system, and empowering teams to make decisions.– When aiming to deliver high-quality software efficiently and respond quickly to changing requirements, applying Lean principles to software development practices can help reduce waste, improve collaboration, and deliver value to customers more effectively.
Agile Unified Process (AUP)– Agile Unified Process (AUP) is a simplified version of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) adapted to Agile principles. – It provides a framework for iterative and incremental development, focusing on producing high-quality software in a cost-effective and timely manner.– When seeking a lightweight and adaptable process for software development, applying AUP to guide iterative development, manage project risks, and ensure that the software meets stakeholder expectations.
Agile Portfolio Management– Agile Portfolio Management applies Agile principles to portfolio management, focusing on maximizing the value delivered by portfolios of projects or products. – It emphasizes continuous planning, adaptive governance, and transparent decision-making to align portfolios with strategic goals.– When managing portfolios of projects or products with evolving priorities and uncertainties, implementing Agile Portfolio Management can help optimize resource allocation, respond effectively to changes, and maximize the value delivered by the portfolio.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)– Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a framework for scaling Agile across large enterprises, providing guidance on roles, ceremonies, and practices at the team, program, and portfolio levels. – It offers various configurations to suit different organizational contexts and scales.– When scaling Agile practices across large organizations with multiple teams and dependencies, implementing SAFe to align teams, synchronize delivery, and ensure consistency and transparency across the enterprise.

Connected Agile & Lean Frameworks

AIOps

aiops
AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.

AgileSHIFT

AgileSHIFT
AgileSHIFT is a framework that prepares individuals for transformational change by creating a culture of agility.

Agile Methodology

agile-methodology
Agile started as a lightweight development method compared to heavyweight software development, which is the core paradigm of the previous decades of software development. By 2001 the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was born as a set of principles that defined the new paradigm for software development as a continuous iteration. This would also influence the way of doing business.

Agile Program Management

agile-program-management
Agile Program Management is a means of managing, planning, and coordinating interrelated work in such a way that value delivery is emphasized for all key stakeholders. Agile Program Management (AgilePgM) is a disciplined yet flexible agile approach to managing transformational change within an organization.

Agile Project Management

agile-project-management
Agile project management (APM) is a strategy that breaks large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. In the APM methodology, each project is completed in small sections – often referred to as iterations. Each iteration is completed according to its project life cycle, beginning with the initial design and progressing to testing and then quality assurance.

Agile Modeling

agile-modeling
Agile Modeling (AM) is a methodology for modeling and documenting software-based systems. Agile Modeling is critical to the rapid and continuous delivery of software. It is a collection of values, principles, and practices that guide effective, lightweight software modeling.

Agile Business Analysis

agile-business-analysis
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.

Agile Leadership

agile-leadership
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles. 

Andon System

andon-system
The andon system alerts managerial, maintenance, or other staff of a production process problem. The alert itself can be activated manually with a button or pull cord, but it can also be activated automatically by production equipment. Most Andon boards utilize three colored lights similar to a traffic signal: green (no errors), yellow or amber (problem identified, or quality check needed), and red (production stopped due to unidentified issue).

Bimodal Portfolio Management

bimodal-portfolio-management
Bimodal Portfolio Management (BimodalPfM) helps an organization manage both agile and traditional portfolios concurrently. Bimodal Portfolio Management – sometimes referred to as bimodal development – was coined by research and advisory company Gartner. The firm argued that many agile organizations still needed to run some aspects of their operations using traditional delivery models.

Business Innovation Matrix

business-innovation
Business innovation is about creating new opportunities for an organization to reinvent its core offerings, revenue streams, and enhance the value proposition for existing or new customers, thus renewing its whole business model. Business innovation springs by understanding the structure of the market, thus adapting or anticipating those changes.

Business Model Innovation

business-model-innovation
Business model innovation is about increasing the success of an organization with existing products and technologies by crafting a compelling value proposition able to propel a new business model to scale up customers and create a lasting competitive advantage. And it all starts by mastering the key customers.

Constructive Disruption

constructive-disruption
A consumer brand company like Procter & Gamble (P&G) defines “Constructive Disruption” as: a willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. According to P&G, it moves around four pillars: lean innovation, brand building, supply chain, and digitalization & data analytics.

Continuous Innovation

continuous-innovation
That is a process that requires a continuous feedback loop to develop a valuable product and build a viable business model. Continuous innovation is a mindset where products and services are designed and delivered to tune them around the customers’ problem and not the technical solution of its founders.

Design Sprint

design-sprint
A design sprint is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore a lesson learned to be iterated.

Design Thinking

design-thinking
Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, defined design thinking as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Therefore, desirability, feasibility, and viability are balanced to solve critical problems.

DevOps

devops-engineering
DevOps refers to a series of practices performed to perform automated software development processes. It is a conjugation of the term “development” and “operations” to emphasize how functions integrate across IT teams. DevOps strategies promote seamless building, testing, and deployment of products. It aims to bridge a gap between development and operations teams to streamline the development altogether.

Dual Track Agile

dual-track-agile
Product discovery is a critical part of agile methodologies, as its aim is to ensure that products customers love are built. Product discovery involves learning through a raft of methods, including design thinking, lean start-up, and A/B testing to name a few. Dual Track Agile is an agile methodology containing two separate tracks: the “discovery” track and the “delivery” track.

eXtreme Programming

extreme-programming
eXtreme Programming was developed in the late 1990s by Ken Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Ward Cunningham. During this time, the trio was working on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System (C3) to help manage the company payroll system. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology. It is designed to improve software quality and the ability of software to adapt to changing customer needs.

Feature-Driven Development

feature-driven-development
Feature-Driven Development is a pragmatic software process that is client and architecture-centric. Feature-Driven Development (FDD) is an agile software development model that organizes workflow according to which features need to be developed next.

Gemba Walk

gemba-walk
A Gemba Walk is a fundamental component of lean management. It describes the personal observation of work to learn more about it. Gemba is a Japanese word that loosely translates as “the real place”, or in business, “the place where value is created”. The Gemba Walk as a concept was created by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System of lean manufacturing. Ohno wanted to encourage management executives to leave their offices and see where the real work happened. This, he hoped, would build relationships between employees with vastly different skillsets and build trust.

GIST Planning

gist-planning
GIST Planning is a relatively easy and lightweight agile approach to product planning that favors autonomous working. GIST Planning is a lean and agile methodology that was created by former Google product manager Itamar Gilad. GIST Planning seeks to address this situation by creating lightweight plans that are responsive and adaptable to change. GIST Planning also improves team velocity, autonomy, and alignment by reducing the pervasive influence of management. It consists of four blocks: goals, ideas, step-projects, and tasks.

ICE Scoring

ice-scoring-model
The ICE Scoring Model is an agile methodology that prioritizes features using data according to three components: impact, confidence, and ease of implementation. The ICE Scoring Model was initially created by author and growth expert Sean Ellis to help companies expand. Today, the model is broadly used to prioritize projects, features, initiatives, and rollouts. It is ideally suited for early-stage product development where there is a continuous flow of ideas and momentum must be maintained.

Innovation Funnel

innovation-funnel
An innovation funnel is a tool or process ensuring only the best ideas are executed. In a metaphorical sense, the funnel screens innovative ideas for viability so that only the best products, processes, or business models are launched to the market. An innovation funnel provides a framework for the screening and testing of innovative ideas for viability.

Innovation Matrix

types-of-innovation
According to how well defined is the problem and how well defined the domain, we have four main types of innovations: basic research (problem and domain or not well defined); breakthrough innovation (domain is not well defined, the problem is well defined); sustaining innovation (both problem and domain are well defined); and disruptive innovation (domain is well defined, the problem is not well defined).

Innovation Theory

innovation-theory
The innovation loop is a methodology/framework derived from the Bell Labs, which produced innovation at scale throughout the 20th century. They learned how to leverage a hybrid innovation management model based on science, invention, engineering, and manufacturing at scale. By leveraging individual genius, creativity, and small/large groups.

Lean vs. Agile

lean-methodology-vs-agile
The Agile methodology has been primarily thought of for software development (and other business disciplines have also adopted it). Lean thinking is a process improvement technique where teams prioritize the value streams to improve it continuously. Both methodologies look at the customer as the key driver to improvement and waste reduction. Both methodologies look at improvement as something continuous.

Lean Startup

startup-company
A startup company is a high-tech business that tries to build a scalable business model in tech-driven industries. A startup company usually follows a lean methodology, where continuous innovation, driven by built-in viral loops is the rule. Thus, driving growth and building network effects as a consequence of this strategy.

Minimum Viable Product

minimum-viable-product
As pointed out by Eric Ries, a minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort through a cycle of build, measure, learn; that is the foundation of the lean startup methodology.

Leaner MVP

leaner-mvp
A leaner MVP is the evolution of the MPV approach. Where the market risk is validated before anything else

Kanban

kanban
Kanban is a lean manufacturing framework first developed by Toyota in the late 1940s. The Kanban framework is a means of visualizing work as it moves through identifying potential bottlenecks. It does that through a process called just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing to optimize engineering processes, speed up manufacturing products, and improve the go-to-market strategy.

Jidoka

jidoka
Jidoka was first used in 1896 by Sakichi Toyoda, who invented a textile loom that would stop automatically when it encountered a defective thread. Jidoka is a Japanese term used in lean manufacturing. The term describes a scenario where machines cease operating without human intervention when a problem or defect is discovered.

PDCA Cycle

pdca-cycle
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle was first proposed by American physicist and engineer Walter A. Shewhart in the 1920s. The PDCA cycle is a continuous process and product improvement method and an essential component of the lean manufacturing philosophy.

Rational Unified Process

rational-unified-process
Rational unified process (RUP) is an agile software development methodology that breaks the project life cycle down into four distinct phases.

Rapid Application Development

rapid-application-development
RAD was first introduced by author and consultant James Martin in 1991. Martin recognized and then took advantage of the endless malleability of software in designing development models. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a methodology focusing on delivering rapidly through continuous feedback and frequent iterations.

Retrospective Analysis

retrospective-analysis
Retrospective analyses are held after a project to determine what worked well and what did not. They are also conducted at the end of an iteration in Agile project management. Agile practitioners call these meetings retrospectives or retros. They are an effective way to check the pulse of a project team, reflect on the work performed to date, and reach a consensus on how to tackle the next sprint cycle. These are the five stages of a retrospective analysis for effective Agile project management: set the stage, gather the data, generate insights, decide on the next steps, and close the retrospective.

Scaled Agile

scaled-agile-lean-development
Scaled Agile Lean Development (ScALeD) helps businesses discover a balanced approach to agile transition and scaling questions. The ScALed approach helps businesses successfully respond to change. Inspired by a combination of lean and agile values, ScALed is practitioner-based and can be completed through various agile frameworks and practices.

SMED

smed
The SMED (single minute exchange of die) method is a lean production framework to reduce waste and increase production efficiency. The SMED method is a framework for reducing the time associated with completing an equipment changeover.

Spotify Model

spotify-model
The Spotify Model is an autonomous approach to scaling agile, focusing on culture communication, accountability, and quality. The Spotify model was first recognized in 2012 after Henrik Kniberg, and Anders Ivarsson released a white paper detailing how streaming company Spotify approached agility. Therefore, the Spotify model represents an evolution of agile.

Test-Driven Development

test-driven-development
As the name suggests, TDD is a test-driven technique for delivering high-quality software rapidly and sustainably. It is an iterative approach based on the idea that a failing test should be written before any code for a feature or function is written. Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an approach to software development that relies on very short development cycles.

Timeboxing

timeboxing
Timeboxing is a simple yet powerful time-management technique for improving productivity. Timeboxing describes the process of proactively scheduling a block of time to spend on a task in the future. It was first described by author James Martin in a book about agile software development.

Scrum

what-is-scrum
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.

Scrumban

scrumban
Scrumban is a project management framework that is a hybrid of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban is a popular approach to helping businesses focus on the right strategic tasks while simultaneously strengthening their processes.

Scrum Anti-Patterns

scrum-anti-patterns
Scrum anti-patterns describe any attractive, easy-to-implement solution that ultimately makes a problem worse. Therefore, these are the practice not to follow to prevent issues from emerging. Some classic examples of scrum anti-patterns comprise absent product owners, pre-assigned tickets (making individuals work in isolation), and discounting retrospectives (where review meetings are not useful to really make improvements).

Scrum At Scale

scrum-at-scale
Scrum at Scale (Scrum@Scale) is a framework that Scrum teams use to address complex problems and deliver high-value products. Scrum at Scale was created through a joint venture between the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. The joint venture was overseen by Jeff Sutherland, a co-creator of Scrum and one of the principal authors of the Agile Manifesto.

Six Sigma

six-sigma
Six Sigma is a data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating errors or defects in a product, service, or process. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola as a management approach based on quality fundamentals in the early 1980s. A decade later, it was popularized by General Electric who estimated that the methodology saved them $12 billion in the first five years of operation.

Stretch Objectives

stretch-objectives
Stretch objectives describe any task an agile team plans to complete without expressly committing to do so. Teams incorporate stretch objectives during a Sprint or Program Increment (PI) as part of Scaled Agile. They are used when the agile team is unsure of its capacity to attain an objective. Therefore, stretch objectives are instead outcomes that, while extremely desirable, are not the difference between the success or failure of each sprint.

Toyota Production System

toyota-production-system
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an early form of lean manufacturing created by auto-manufacturer Toyota. Created by the Toyota Motor Corporation in the 1940s and 50s, the Toyota Production System seeks to manufacture vehicles ordered by customers most quickly and efficiently possible.

Total Quality Management

total-quality-management
The Total Quality Management (TQM) framework is a technique based on the premise that employees continuously work on their ability to provide value to customers. Importantly, the word “total” means that all employees are involved in the process – regardless of whether they work in development, production, or fulfillment.

Waterfall

waterfall-model
The waterfall model was first described by Herbert D. Benington in 1956 during a presentation about the software used in radar imaging during the Cold War. Since there were no knowledge-based, creative software development strategies at the time, the waterfall method became standard practice. The waterfall model is a linear and sequential project management framework. 

Read Also: Continuous Innovation, Agile Methodology, Lean Startup, Business Model Innovation, Project Management.

Read Next: Agile Methodology, Lean Methodology, Agile Project Management, Scrum, Kanban, Six Sigma.

Main Guides:

Main Case Studies:

More Resources

Scroll to Top

Discover more from FourWeekMBA

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

FourWeekMBA