Agile and Agility Are Not The Same Thing

We must acknowledge that there is a massive difference between Agile and Agility. Agile as we know it today is centered around frameworks that serve as a launchpad for the journey toward agility. The challenge we face however is that the Agile frameworks primarily empower agility at the team level, and unfortunately, the way that we intake and deliver work is mostly non-agile so what leaders see is teams working in 2-week sprints while trying to deliver a fixed date and scope project.

What leaders care about is not really agility, what they care about is predictability. Their stakeholders want to hear that they will deliver predictable results regarding sales and financial expectations. When we miss those targets then stakeholders start to get nervous. This is why we don’t really get the engagement of leadership when we are talking about Agile, we aren’t addressing their needs for predictability, and in fact, those in the Agile space will say that predictability is a bad thing for Agile, which I fundamentally disagree.

We cannot ignore the need for predictability, especially as we are heading for what many believe to be a recession. Those organizations that can align agility with predictability, will be able to respond and deliver more value than those who move back towards command-and-control project management approaches.

Leaders need to fundamentally change the way they view their technology organization, moving away from demand and cost-centered mindset to one that aligns strategy and value. If you want predictable results from your technology investments you must focus on value outcomes, not operational outputs, the predictability of the former will make your organization stronger during hard times.

If you want to learn more about how to do this with my QValue strategic planning model contact me at michael@soundagile.com