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A Retrospective of Agile Transformations
Dr.-Ing. Olha Mikhieieva
Vice President Agility
PMI Köln Chapter e.V.
Düsseldorf, Germany
olha.mikhieieva@gmail.com
Klaus Stephan
President
PMI Köln Chapter e.V.
Nettetal, Germany
Klaus.stephan@isapm.org
Abstract— Until recently, Agile was considered as a set of
principles and practices relevant only to software development
projects. However, Agile is now spreading to all parts and types
of organisations, turning into a booming field of various
frameworks and methods. While everyone refers to the Agile
Manifesto [1], [2], “Agile” is perceived and, thus, implemented
differently. Hence, an alignment on the almost philosophical
question “What is “Agile” to you?” contributes to the common
ground and “common language” for adoption. Understanding
how Agile we are, in turn, provides transparency and is the
means for consistent adoption.
This paper represents the results of the PMI Köln Chapter
research, which aim was to analyse the current status of Agile
transformations in German organisations through the following
research questions:
1. What does Agile mean?
2. What is the level and scope of agile adoption?
3. What are the benefits and challenges of adopting Agile?
The distinctive feature of the conducted research is the
recognition that the way and the adoption itself of Agile will vary
depending on an organisation’s form. In some cases, the Agile
transformation of a company will vary from a department’s
transformation. Applying an agile approach in a project, which
is by definition a temporary organisation, will require yet
another approach. For this reason, we strived to scrutinize
Agility for different organisational types.
Keywords—agility, agile transformation, agile mindset,
styling, Scrum, SAFe®, PMI-ACP
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays a growing number of organisations in Germany
as well draw the conclusion that the adaption of Agile
methodologies might be a necessary innovation strategy
delivering significant benefits to overcome problems
frequently reported referring to the time, scope, quality and
budget challenges of projects. A few concurrent Agile
methodologies and tools can be found at the market together
with a high variability of organisations concerning size,
industries and customers which makes it difficult to find best
pairing between them. The right selection from the beginning
might be crucial for the success of a project for agile
transformation.
To get more reliable data that might better help to
understand if and how to apply such a promising approach of
agility, this survey starts bottom up collecting and interpreting
feedback as data source from the real world.
The following research methodology was used for this
survey. A list of 1000 potential respondents related to a project
environment was used to serve as the survey’s base of
samples. A total of 109 completed responses were received
corresponding to a response rate of 11%. 40 respondents
evaluated Agile in a company/organisation, 26 in a
department and 43 in a project. A cross-analysis between
organisational, department and project levels was mentioned
through the evaluation of the survey only when significant
deviations were found in the survey’s results.
As it is not known, if a respondent has the capability to
compare different frameworks, tools or industries on his or her
own the survey tried to avoid product specific results to get
neutral, independent data.
II. WHAT DOES AGILE MEAN?
A. Meaning Agile
Coming from rather different industries and organisational
units, most survey participants (82%) perceive Agile as a
mindset and a set of principles and values. 53% shared the
opinion that Agile is a framework and/or methodology. 40%
consider Agile as a project management approach (What does
Agile mean to you?)
What does Agile mean to you?
Our analysis across organizational, department and
projects levels showed the following trends. While at all
levels, respondents voted for a mindset and frameworks as the
two top meanings, at department level, “customer-centric
approach” was chosen as frequently as “framework and/or
methodology”.
At organisational level, the least favoured interpretation
was “innovation approach”, same as at department level. At
the project level, the respondents voted least of all for “lever
for organizational transformation” (Fig. 2).
The introduction of Agile can be considered as an
innovation towards the organization and therefore the results
can be understood from this perspective. One way to analyze
innovation based products is described by Sinkek [7] using a
principle called “The golden circle” putting the “Why” into
the center of an inner circle. This is encapsulated by the
“How” and finally the “What” circle.
What does Agile mean across organisational forms?
Taking this into account you can assume that the question
“What does Agile mean?” was translated by the respondents
into the question “Why are we doing this innovation?” and the
answers reflect the individual, best fitting needs and benefits
for the different type of organization.
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) as one of the
methodologies to cover all levels of an enterprise is explicitly
underlining the need for distinction of different strategic
purposes to be successful [8]. For this and the further
questions we assume that the project organization considers
the most preferable value from an Agile approach to support
the success of projects, while the department focuses on the
generating business value with the internal or external
customer while the organization might strive for a balance to
deliver business value by performing well in projects.
Referring to SAFe® as an example you can find a similar Agile
approach by the differentiation into competencies for
team/program, solution and portfolio [9].
B. Reasoning Agile
Reducing time-to-market and improving customer satisfaction
were stated as top reasons for adopting Agile by more than
57% of respondents, followed by improving quality (at 50%)
(Fig.3).
Reasons for adopting Agile
The results from Fig. 4 suggest that the reasons for
adopting Agile at project level are similar to those for
following the methodology at department level or to
transform an entire organisation. The survey reports the same
top three reasons at all levels mentioned. At department level,
two additional reasons – “increase project success rate” and
“improve productivity” – got the same ranking as “improve
quality”. Some deviations can be highlighted when
comparing the most and the least important reasons for
adoption only. At organisational level, the main reason for
adoption is improving customer satisfaction (at 70%). At
department level, reducing time-to-market is the main reason
for adoption (at 73%), as it is at project level (at 58%). The
reason ranked lowest at the organisational level was an
improvement of employee satisfaction; at department level –
digital transformation leverage; and at project level – an
improvement of employee satisfaction, once again.
Reasons for adopting Agile across organizational forms
The focus on time and quality fits to the Agile
methodologies which refer to the 1. Agile Manifesto [1] “Our
highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and
continuous delivery of valuable software reducing waste time
do not alter them.”.
C. Applying Agile
As shown in Fig. 5 two thirds of the organisations apply
Agile mainly in software development projects.
What are your main application areas of Agile?
This corresponds to the fact that working software was the
primary field of the Agile Manifesto [1]. For one third of them,
digital projects are the main field of application and for almost
a quarter – development of innovative series and products.
The latter may be seen as a rather interesting fact, since
“innovation approach” was least associated with Agile (See
Fig. 1). Agile frameworks instead consider “Innovation” as
one of the pillars of the so called “House of Lead” as it is
called by SAFe® [11].
One company in six applies Agile in non-software
projects, which testifies to its applicability not only to IT
projects. Apparently, Agile is expanding into non-software
environments and businesses need more insights into how its
methods are best applied in non-software projects.
Non-software projects mentioned hereby might refer to the
Agile approach when software is an essential part of the
product or the hardware but also to prototyping to gain an
MVP (Minimum Viable Product) which overlaps with the
term Proof-of-Concept (PoC) as demonstrated in the case
studies from John-Deere [10] .
What are your main application areas of Agile across organizational
forms?
The cross analysis at different levels (Fig. 6) shows some
significant deviations. At organisational level, selections are
distributed most evenly. 45% of respondents apply Agile in
software development projects. Proof-of-concept, digital
projects and development of innovative services and products
rank at approx. 30% each. At department level, software
development projects are the main field of application
according to two thirds of the respondents. One third of
respondents state to manage digital projects and non-software
projects with an Agile approach. Moreover, one organisation
in four applies Agile to develop innovative services and
products. At project level, Agile is applied mostly in software
development projects and widely used in digital projects,
whereas other areas are of less interest.
D. Measuring Agile
Looking at success metrics in Agile given by Fig. 7, the
ability to respond to change stands out. After all, this is one of
the meanings of the word “agile”. For example, the Agile
Practice Guide® (PMI) [3] mentions metrics such as velocity,
cycle time, lead time and approved iterations among others.
The results of the survey show that improved time-to-market
is used most to measure success and benefits of Agile in
Germany’s businesses. The two other metrics mentioned most
frequently were improved customer satisfaction and improved
transparency and communication. The latter is a strong
counterargument to the perception of Agile as being chaotic.
It might be worth to mention that different established
business metrics are integrated as an essential part into Agile
frameworks to meet the needs of large enterprises [13].
Measures of success and benefits of Agile
A careful distinguishment to the KPIs should be done
when differentiating between the kind of products to be
created by Agile methodologies when interpreting the figures
as it was found out stating “We conclude that agile
development is not hyped in general… More specifically,
according to our survey, agile development of physical
products is hyped in hard controlling KPI's in particular.”[12]
III. WHAT IS THE LEVEL AND SCOPE OF AGILE ADOPTION?
A. Level of Agile Adoption
As reflected in Fig. 8 almost one third of respondents have
implemented Agile in selected projects and another third
stated that it was applied in software development projects.
Thus, 75% of participants are in the initial phases of adoption.
60% of the respondents believe that they will have scaled
Agile in 2-3 years or be in its more mature phases. For
example, 26% believe they will have integrated Agile into the
company’s business functions and 13% expect the
transformation to be completed by then. In only 2% of
organisations who took the survey, Agile was integrated into
the company’s business functions, and another 2% of
respondents stated that transformation is completed and the
organisation is fully agile. Among these companies we have
found both large and small organisations from a number of
industries, ranging from banking or insurance and industrial
manufacturing to telecommunications and consumer goods.
What are your main application areas of Agile across organizational
forms?
B. Mapping Agile
It is not surprising to see from Fig. 9 that the vast majority of
organisations have included agile methods in their roadmaps.
Technologies and tools are part of 56% of roadmaps followed
by project management, at 53%. Less than half of agile
roadmaps cover corporate culture, although 82% of
respondents consider Agile as a mindset (see Chapter II).
Which of the following is included into your roadmap for
implementing Agile?
C. Implementing Agile
Supporting the findings on the roadmap towards agility
companies who took our survey first implemented
collaborative tools (65%) to be found in Fig. 10. The elements
ranked second were visualization and trainings in agile
methodologies (both at 59%). Building cross-functional teams
was also implemented by more than a half of respondents
(53%). Only 45% make use of agile coaching. The evolution
of the management role ranks at the bottom of the list.
However, those respondents who voted for a necessary change
of the management role belong to those organisations who are
more advanced in their transformation towards a fully agile
enterprise. Especially companies that apply agile in non-
software projects devoted their attention to changing the
classic management style into servant leadership. The
importance of implementing Agile the right way is reflected
in the fact, that frameworks do suggest a best practice
implementation road. The roadmap provided by SAFe® [13]
is considered to be a useful guide for any other framework too.
Cross-sectional analysis as given in Fig. 11 reveals that
those companies with the highest level of Agile adoption,
Which collaborative tool do you use to support the agile approach?
meaning where Agile is integrated into the company’s
business functions or where transformation is completed, have
implemented collaborative tools such as Jira (100%), trainings
on agile methodologies (75%), certain visualization tools
(75%) and cross functional teams (75%). As mentioned
before, Jira is just an example and the figures give no hint
which tool is used or shows good results. Especially if some
organisations reported to go back to paper based Kanban in
certain cases.
Collaborative tools of the organisations with the highest level of
Agile adoption
IV. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF ADOPTING
AGILE?
A. Benefitting from Agile
This chapter reports on the positive effects of adopting
Agile, key facts supporting
Positive effects of adopting Agile are one of the key
outcomes of our survey. When evaluating those within a
company or a project, one also has to keep the initial reasons
for adoption in mind, which were notably reduced time-to-
market and improved customer satisfaction (see Chapter II).
Improved collaboration among departments and teams ranked
as the top benefit of Agility (57%) followed by improved
employee satisfaction (49%). The third place is almost evenly
shared by improved customer satisfaction, improved quality,
and reduced time-to-market. Both at the organisational and
department level (Fig.12), the second most positive effect was
not only improved employee satisfaction but also increased
productivity (48% and 42% respectively), which ranks rather
low in the overall results. At project level, however, increased
productivity was seen as the least positive effect and was
selected only by 21% of respondents. The survey does not
cover correlations between the outcomes and the different
levels and processes in enterprises exist at strategic, business,
portfolio, development or operational structures as this might
have excluded small and medium enterprises.
Positive effects from adopting Agile across organizational forms?
B. Supporting Agile
According to Fig. 13 respondents reported agile coaching
to be the most beneficial element for adopting Agile (61%).
Training on agile methodologies was ranked second and
chosen by 51% of participants. The third place belongs to an
agile transformation program or project, closely followed by
collaborative and visualization tools.
What of the following do you believe supports
adoption of Agile?
C. Challenged by Agile
Reporting on challenges shown in Fig. 14 in Agile
adoption is challenging by itself since numerous options and
formulations of terms are used in professional and scientific
literature. When inspired for lengthy options, scientific papers
with systematic results are helpful for a detailed analysis of
challenges. For example [4], where excessive enthusiasm
towards agile methods is listed as a challenge among thirty
five others. In this survey, however, only ten challenges were
suggested for selection. Respondents indicated agile teams in
“waterfall” organizational structures to be the main challenge
(67%). Lack of agile skills and being rooted in traditional
methodologies as well as organisational culture were rated as
obstacles by 57% and 56% of participants respectively.
What challenges have you faced during transformation to Agile?
V. CONCLUSIONS
In general, this study shows that that it is important to
differentiate who are the customers of the Agile
Transformation as the reasons and success factors differ by the
organisational form and level.
Apart from the results described in this paper, we would
like to highlight some of the main findings.
Reducing time-to-market and improving customer
satisfaction are the top reasons for adopting Agile, whereas the
top outcome is improved collaboration across departments
and teams. Thus, the reasons for Agile adoption differ from its
direct outcomes.
Improved time-to-market and improved customer
satisfaction are the two most used metrics of success and
benefits along with improved transparency and
communication.
Most of the respondents are currently at the early stages of
Agile adoption. Less than half of Agile roadmaps cover
corporate culture, although majority of the respondents
understand Agile as a mindset.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to express special gratitude to the PMI Köln
Chapter Board members and volunteers who contributed to
the original survey [15].
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