Enterprise Agility

Enterprise Agility

by Sunil Mundra
Released June 2018
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781788990646

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Book description

Enterprise Agility is practical framework for enhancing Agility and equipping your company with the tools to survive.

About This Book
  • Prepare your company to navigate the rapidly-moving business world
  • Enhance Agility in every component of your organization
  • Build a framework that meets the unique requirements of your enterprise
Who This Book Is For

Enterprise Agility is a tool for anyone with the motivation to influence outcomes in an enterprise, who aspires to improve Agility. Readers from the following backgrounds will benefit: chief executive officer, chief information officer, people/human resource director, information technology director, head of change program, head of transformation, and Agile coach/consultant.

What You Will Learn
  • Drive agility-oriented change across the enterprise
  • Understand why agility matters (more than ever) to modern enterprises
  • Adopt and influence an Agile mindset in your teams and in your organization
  • Understand the concept of a CAS and how to model enterprise and leadership behaviors on CAS characteristics to enhance enterprise agility
  • Understand and convey the differences between Agile and true enterprise agility
  • Create an enterprise-specific action plan to enhance agility
  • Become a champion for enterprise agility
  • Recognize the advantages and challenges of distributed teams, and how Agile ways of working can remedy the rough spots
  • Enable and motivate your IT partners to adopt Agile ways of working
In Detail

The biggest challenge enterprises face today is dealing with fast-paced change in all spheres of business. Enterprise Agility shows how an enterprise can address this challenge head on and thrive in the dynamic environment. Avoiding the mechanistic construction of existing enterprises that focus on predictability and certainty, Enterprise Agility delivers practical advice for responding and adapting to the scale and accelerating pace of disruptive change in the business environment.

Agility is a fundamental shift in thinking about how enterprises work to effectively deal with disruptive changes in the business environment. The core belief underlying agility is that enterprises are open and living systems. These living systems, also known as complex adaptive systems (CAS), are ideally suited to deal with change very effectively.

Agility is to enterprises what health is to humans. There are some foundational principles that can be broadly applied, but the definition of healthy is very specific to each individual. Enterprise Agility takes a similar approach with regard to agility: it suggests foundational practices to improve the overall health of the body - culture, mindset, and leadership - and the health of its various organs: people, process, governance, structure, technology, and customers. The book also suggests a practical framework to create a plan to enhance agility.

Style and approach

Enterprise Agility is a step-by-step guide to facing change and uncertainty head-on. The books provides practical ways to apply Agile methodologies and boost Agility throughout a business.

Publisher resources

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Table of contents

  1. Enterprise Agility
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Enterprise Agility
      1. Why subscribe?
      2. PacktPub.com
    4. Forewords
    5. Endorsements
    6. Contributors
      1. About the author
      2. About the reviewer
      3. Packt is searching for authors like you
    7. Preface
      1. The challenge of fast-paced change
      2. Agility is a necessity
      3. Goal of the book
      4. Value and limitations of the book
      5. Intended audience
      6. What this book covers
        1. Part 1 – The need for enterprise agility
        2. Part 2 – The foundations of enterprise agility
        3. Part 3 – The components of enterprise agility
        4. Part 4 – The blind spots
        5. Part 5 – The journey for enhancing agility
      7. Learning outcomes
      8. The final word
        1. Conventions used
      9. Get in touch
        1. Reviews
    8. I. The need for enterprise agility
      1. 1. Fast-Paced Change – Threat or Opportunity?
        1. The significance of the fourth industrial revolution
          1. The impact of fast-paced change
            1. Disruptive innovations
            2. Breakdown of traditional entry barriers
            3. Intersection of domains
            4. No place to hide
            5. Demanding customers
            6. Demanding employees
            7. Plentiful and cheap information
          2. What has worked in the past is unlikely to work now
        2. Change as an opportunity
        3. Summary
        4. References
      2. 2. From Agile to Agility
        1. The values and principles of Agile
          1. The Agile Manifesto
          2. Agile is a resounding success in IT
          3. Agile has also made a difference to the business world
          4. Issues with Agile adoption and scaling
            1. Focus on "doing" Agile
            2. Adoption without addressing systemic issues
            3. Adoption for wrong/unclear reasons
            4. The "Cookie cutter" approach
            5. Early visibility of issues seen as a problem with Agile
            6. Leaders feeling threatened
            7. Wrong expectations
            8. Underestimating the extent and impact of change
        2. The need for enhancing agility
        3. Adopting Agile is not enough
        4. Enhancing agility is not the same as Agile transformation
        5. Capabilities underlying agility
          1. Responsiveness
          2. Versatility
          3. Flexibility
          4. Resilience
          5. Innovativeness
          6. Adaptability
        6. Properties of agility
        7. Characteristics of enterprises with high agility
        8. Optimal agility
        9. Summary
        10. References
    9. II. The foundations of enterprise agility
      1. 3. The Enterprise as a Living System
        1. The mechanistic approach that is outdated for enterprise modeling
          1. Taylor's scientific management theory – the roots of mechanistic modeling
            1. Managers should "think" and workers should "do"
            2. Efficiency is the most important outcome to aim for
            3. Processes and methods should drive ways of working
        2. Need to reinfuse "life" into enterprises
        3. Complex adaptive systems (CAS) – a proven model of high agility
        4. What are CAS?
        5. Characteristics of a CAS
          1. Continuous evolution
          2. Autonomous and self-organizing agents
            1. Agents' interactions influence system behavior
            2. Agents' behavior is driven by purpose
            3. Loosely-coupled agents
            4. Variety is a source of strength
            5. Emergent behavior
            6. The nonlinear relationship between cause and effect
            7. Patterns of behavior
        6. Reasons for high agility in a CAS
        7. Implications for enterprises
          1. Enhanced agility
          2. Responsive structure
          3. Build social density
          4. Amplify success stories
          5. Encourage healthy friction
          6. Link purpose to work
          7. Balance proximity and modularity
          8. Cultivate diversity
          9. Build on emergence
          10. Shorter feedback loops
          11. Experiment with lever points
          12. Balance order and chaos
          13. Selective destruction
          14. Simple rules
          15. Safe to fail experiments
          16. Prioritize effectiveness over efficiency
          17. Monitor and leverage patterns
        8. Summary
        9. References
      2. 4. Mindset and Culture
        1. Significance
        2. What is mindset?
        3. What is culture?
        4. The culture and mindset ecosystem
        5. Changing mindset and culture
        6. Values aligned to agility
          1. Internal-oriented values
          2. External-oriented values
        7. Behaviors aligned to agility
          1. Treat failure as a learning opportunity
          2. Focus on continuous improvement
          3. Value team spirit over individual heroics
          4. Willingness to share knowledge
          5. Diversity of thought valued
          6. Practice "brutal" transparency
          7. Effective feedback
          8. Recognize the last responsible moment
          9. Driven by value
        8. Enabling behavior changes
          1. Align the metrics
          2. Levelling environment
          3. Leadership involvement
          4. Identify what needs to change about the current mindset and culture
          5. Link a behavior change to business outcomes
          6. Call out gaps between expected and actual behaviors
          7. Have clarity and consensus around trade-offs
          8. Deal with individual negative behaviors on a case-to-case basis
          9. Look out for broader anti-patterns
          10. Go beyond logic
        9. Aligning the workplace to an agility-enabling culture
        10. Summary
        11. References
      3. 5. Leadership
        1. Significance
        2. Dimensions of leadership
        3. Personal traits
          1. Willingness to expand mental models
          2. Self-awareness
          3. Creativity
          4. Emotional intelligence
          5. Courage
          6. A passion for learning
          7. Awareness of cognitive biases
            1. Confirmation bias
            2. Bandwagon effect bias
            3. "Guru" bias
            4. Projection bias
            5. Stability bias
          8. Resilience
          9. Responsiveness
        4. Behavioral capabilities
          1. Tolerance toward failure
          2. Connection with peers
          3. Comfort with "VUCA"
          4. Ability to guide and facilitate teams
          5. Ability to leverage risk
          6. Connection through engagement
          7. Ability to apply systems thinking
          8. Being technology aware
          9. Following servant leadership
          10. Balancing the paradoxes
          11. Encouraging inclusivity and diversity
          12. "Humble inquiry"
        5. Summary
        6. References
    10. III. The components of enterprise agility
      1. 6. Organization Structure
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. A "tall" hierarchy
          2. Organizing primarily for efficiency
          3. Devaluing knowledge workers
          4. Centralization of core capabilities
          5. Leadership-level silos
        3. Enablers for enhancing agility
          1. Organize teams around business outcomes
          2. Self-organizing teams
            1. Coaching
            2. Empowered to make decisions
            3. Team chemistry
            4. Access to needed resources
          3. Stable teams
          4. Flat(ter) structure
          5. Repurpose the "frozen middle layer"
          6. Enable learning through communities
          7. Delink employee growth from structure
          8. Adhocracy as a decision-making model
          9. Supportive tooling
          10. Flexible, adaptable, and lean structure
        4. Summary
        5. References
      2. 7. Process
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. Broken processes
            1. Processes not being aligned with the company's purpose/outcomes
            2. Processes not being fit for purpose
          2. Rigid processes
          3. Striving for 100% utilization
          4. Estimation and capacity planning done by "outsiders"
        3. Enablers for enhancing agility
          1. Optimize for outcomes
          2. Valuable inputs
          3. "Pull-based" flow
          4. Make it visual
          5. Seize opportunities to automate
          6. Use of enabling tools
          7. Build quality in
          8. Enable teamwork and shared ownership
          9. Determine capacity based on throughput
        4. Summary
        5. References
      3. 8. People
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. Mechanistic view of people
          2. Lack of trust
          3. Blaming people
          4. Feeling of "being used"
          5. Lack of appreciation
          6. The "that's not my job" attitude
          7. The "yes boss" mindset
          8. Competition among individuals
          9. Differential treatment for contractual employees
          10. "Forcing" people to become managers
        3. Enablers to agility
          1. Psychological safety
          2. Competency-driven people development
          3. Intrinsic motivation
            1. Autonomy
            2. Mastery
            3. Purpose
          4. Engagement
            1. Ability to have fun at work
            2. Hiring for diversity
            3. Holistic and frequent feedback on performance
            4. Learning culture
        4. Summary
        5. References
      4. 9. Technology
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. Treating the technology department as a cost center
          2. The "stepchild" treatment of the technology function
          3. Obsolete legacy systems
          4. Silos within the technology function
          5. Lack of engineering practices
          6. The bimodal approach
        3. COTS products for core capabilities
          1. Infrastructure vulnerability
        4. Enablers to agility
          1. Business-technology alignment and collaboration
            1. Shared measures of success
            2. Business appreciating the nature of technology work
            3. Visibility and transparency
            4. Direct exposure to customers
            5. Understand that change has a cost
            6. Speak in a common language
            7. Make the business self-reliant
          2. Agile and DevOps
          3. Culture of technology artisanship
          4. Portfolio management
          5. Evolutionary architecture
          6. Build core capabilities internally
          7. T-shaped skills
          8. Platforms
        5. Summary
        6. References
      5. 10. Governance
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. Optimization of silos
          2. Relying on misleading and non-actionable metrics
            1. Watermelon metrics
            2. Vanity metrics
            3. Lagging indicators
            4. Metrics that drive wrong behaviors
          3. Sunk cost fallacy
          4. Speed at the cost of quality
          5. Annual budgeting
          6. Governing for compliance and documentation
          7. Projects/initiatives delinked from strategy
          8. "Frozen middle"
        3. Enablers to agility
          1. Value-driven prioritization
          2. Continuous validation of value
          3. Incremental funding
          4. Balancing of leading and lagging indicators
          5. Attend showcases/demos
          6. End-to-end link between purpose and initiatives
        4. Summary
        5. References
      6. 11. Customer
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to the effectiveness of agility
          1. Exploitation mindset
          2. Taking customers for granted
          3. Focusing only on linear customer journeys
          4. Make assumptions about customer needs and preferences
          5. Ignoring end users
        3. Enablers to the effectiveness of agility
          1. The "customer-first" culture
          2. Aim for customer delight
          3. Understand what value means to the customer
        4. Summary
        5. References
    11. IV. The blind spots
      1. 12. Distributed Teams
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. Cultural differences
          2. Time zone differences
          3. Language differences
          4. Lack of the "big picture" view
          5. Misunderstanding of requirements
          6. Trust deficit
          7. Lack of visibility
          8. Low morale
          9. Lack of collective ownership
          10. Risk of unpleasant surprises when "everything comes together"
        3. Enablers for enhancing agility
          1. People
            1. Proxy product owner/business representative
            2. Cross-pollination
            3. Cultural sensitivity
            4. Feedback culture
            5. Leverage effective communicators
          2. Process
            1. Inception/project kick-off workshop
            2. Joint stand-ups
            3. Joint retrospectives
            4. Maximize overlapping hours
            5. Periodic "work in process" showcases/demo
          3. Tools and infrastructure
            1. Electronic work pipeline
            2. Electronic build radiator
            3. Communication and collaboration tools
            4. Coding standards
            5. Source control system
            6. Network connectivity
          4. Structure
            1. Cross-functional teams
            2. Conway's law
            3. Perception of power
        4. Summary
        5. References
      2. 13. Technology Partners
        1. Significance
        2. Inhibitors to agility
          1. Resistance and concerns in adopting Agile ways of working
          2. Transactional relationship
          3. Frozen contracts
        3. Enablers for enhancing agility
          1. Ways of working
            1. True spirit of partnership
            2. Outcome-focused partnership
            3. Agile contracts
            4. Success story
            5. Agile awareness and training
            6. Coaching
            7. Stakeholder map and communication plan
            8. Social contract
            9. Alignment on estimation framework and standards
            10. Alignment on the definition of "ready" and "done"
            11. Ensure infrastructure and security alignment upfront
            12. Risk and issues – identification and management
            13. Governance mechanism for handling escalations
            14. Lead partner
            15. Heads up on changes in capacity
            16. Primarily focus on outcomes, not on practices
            17. Phased introduction of advanced Agile practices
            18. Learning through pairing
            19. Maintain clarity on priorities
            20. Continuous eye on quality
            21. Monitor time in wait states post-handoffs closely
            22. Knowledge transfer
          2. Behaviors
            1. Respect their pride
            2. Empathy
            3. Pick your battles
        4. Summary
        5. References
    12. V. The journey to enhancing agility
      1. 14. Framework for Action
        1. Leadership alignment on the need for change
        2. Redefine/validate the purpose of the enterprise
        3. Define the capabilities underlying agility
        4. Translate intent into action
          1. Assess the current state
          2. Envision the future
          3. Plan the change
          4. Execute the plan
            1. Don't copy frameworks blindly
            2. Balance evolution and execution
            3. Regression in periods of crisis
            4. Keep teams stable
            5. Leverage ways of working using propagation techniques
        5. Agility as a journey and not a destination
        6. Summary
        7. References
      2. 15. Facilitating Change
        1. Significance
        2. Learnings
          1. People do not resist change
          2. Things will get worse before they get better
          3. Continuous adaptation should be the norm
          4. Employee engagement is a prerequisite for extrinsic enablers to have impact
          5. Need to slow down to go faster
          6. Watch out for change fatigue
          7. Don't "steamroll" the "laggards"
          8. Don't "shoot the enablers"
          9. Sense of purpose over sense of urgency
          10. Clarity on "what's in it for me?"
          11. Primary focus on outcomes over means
          12. Small gestures of appreciation can have disproportionate positive impact
          13. Upgrade skills
          14. Respect the hard constraints
          15. Don't manage change, facilitate it
        3. Summary
        4. References
        5. Summary
    13. Other Books You May Enjoy
      1. Lean Product Management
      2. Understanding Software
      3. Leave a review – let other readers know what you think
    14. Index

Product information

  • Title: Enterprise Agility
  • Author(s): Sunil Mundra
  • Release date: June 2018
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781788990646