Modern Agile and the State of Digital Transformation

Agile is a software development paradigm created in 2001. It was different from how developers were used to building software. It enabled developers to be more effective at customer value delivery. The agile manifesto contains the principles of agile project management.

Even with all the benefits of agile, developers have identified some limitations in the past few years. Some agile principles appear to be out of date. Also, more often, agile principles only remain in the realm of software development.

In this article, we will discuss the difference between agile and modern agile, as well as how modern agile is affecting digital transformation in 2020.

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What Problems Does Agile Present For The Whole Organization?

Since agile is mainly a software development methodology, it means that HR, management, operations, and other departments have to change their workflow to make the transition to agile as smooth as possible. In a team that decides for itself how to get the job done, the team members will naturally feel safe.

In fact, teams that worked in an agile environment were working in a way quite different from the rest of the company, which resulted in mismatches. This is one of the frustrating things about agile. If you are to work in a self-organizing team as the agile manifesto puts it, your organization should enable your team.

Since the agile manifesto mainly focused on software development, it works in a very limited environment. This is why many developers and companies are enthusiastic about modern agile.

What Is Modern Agile and How Is it Different From Agile?

Modern Agile is a broader term than the Agile Manifesto used in today’s software development. Modern agile takes many different areas into account, unlike the agile manifesto that mainly focuses on software development.

Modern agile methods have four guiding principles.

#1: Make People Awesome

This principle involves shipping something that makes everyone involved awesome. For example, if your co-workers are feeling unhappy, what can you do to make them feel awesome? If our users are happy with the value we offer them, how can we enhance this?

#2: Make Safety a Prerequisite

Modern agile takes human safety quite seriously. This principle is based on the premise that when people feel safe, they will perform at their highest potential. Environments that are unsafe may not only endanger the physical safety but also their psychological welfare. 

Other than human safety, there is also product safety. This answers the question of how safe it is to modify and for the end-user to use.

#3: Continuous Value Delivery

Continuous delivery of value is all about getting value to the customer quickly. It involves dividing things into smaller pieces that allow for fast value delivery. Do not get me wrong. This is not about ticking off completed features. Instead, it is about giving the customer fast and continuous value.

#4: Experimentation and Rapid Learning

This principle is critical to differentiating you from your competitors. Frequent experimentation and learning help you create products with the capacity to make your users feel awesome.

All the Modern Agile Principles are Connected

As you can see, the four agile principles are highly intertwined. For example, if as a developer you feel safe, you are more likely to experiment, learn quickly from such experiments and deliver value continuously, which makes everyone in the ecosystem awesome.

The State of Digital Transformation

In the course of the past few years, there has been a great increase in the adoption of agile methodology for project management. As a matter of fact, agile is the new norm. This is because agile focuses on simplicity and results. 

Apart from being an amazing and efficient tool for project management, modern agile is today a driving framework in the digital organization transformation. This allows developers to revisit their work if there are uncertainties and modify goals based on client feedback.

What role does agile play in digital transformation?

Digital transformation refers to leveraging technology to create change that’s powerful and long-lasting. It’s basically how an organization operates at a fundamental level. This shows that modern agile is an exceptional tool that results in digital transformation by simplifying how tech is used in managing organizational operations.

How to Use Modern Agile for Digital Transformation

Thanks to the stability and flexibility that modern agile offers to employees in dynamic environments, organizations have the opportunity to evolve. This is critical to digital transformation because the tech scene changes fast.

There is no secret that digital transformation is changing the way Agile in business intelligence operates. The agile methodology acts as a guiding beacon to increase the returns from this change, thereby revolutionizing the entire company.

Conclusion

Modern agile can be used everywhere. The principles are easy to understand and can be used in all the departments of a company. The modern agile concept is quite inspirational and we will likely do another deep dive on it in the future.

Since modern agile allows the organization to work more collaboratively, it ensures that companies can deliver better value while increasing their visibility with digital technologies. At its foundation, agile is a methodology with the power to revolutionize the current workflow and help create valuable products for all customers.