Identifying an Agile Transformation Scorecard

Written by Isaac Hogue for LeadingAgile.

In a previous post, I asked the question of how can we tell if we are succeeding with an enterprise agile transformation.  In this post I’ll close with the notion of using a balanced scorecard for signaling progress towards the transformation’s core business drivers.

A couple of comments were shared after the last post was published that cautioned on the dangers of creating a scorecard that would not drive the “right” behaviors or that was too broad and couldn’t be connected with the transformation’s  overall success.  This was great feedback and I appreciate the engagement with the post.

In keeping with my desire to resolve this question, I’ll explore a bit more of the notion behind why many organizations are seeking a transformation.  I think answering this question will help to frame up a sample balanced scorecard in another post.  Thanks for continuing to share your thoughts and feedback along the way.

So the question asks…

Why transform? I think it is fair to say that the number of reasons why an organization would seek an enterprise agile transformation could be as varied as the people of the world. Both unique and diverse. That said, I most often hear about the following handful of reasons for an enterprise to transform: (1) new competitive forces in the marketplace, (2) an inability to pivot or focus, and/or (3) quality issues.  Frequently the statement goes something like this:

“Our competitors are startups and they will try anything to eat our lunch.  It takes us almost a year to release a new idea into the marketplace and by that time we are several months behind the next startup.”

In this case I would probably orient around both (1) time to market and (2) innovation as key business drivers; but, it would be important to remember that innovation and time to market are usually not enough.  We would need to keep our eye on the ball with regards to business, cash or (3) return on investment. So, using traditional balanced scorecard perspectives, I would orient Financial around ROI, Customer around Quality, Ops and Processes around Time to Market, and Innovation around continuous improvement.

What are your thoughts, would you identify different themes for the scorecard or change the placement of the themes into different perspectives? Looking forward to hearing the opinions and views to this approach.

Thanks for reading!