Practical Agile Management (really just practical management)

Those that follow me know that I’ve introduced several ideas related to how to manage your organization with the intent to deliver agility.

Recently I’ve been going back to my days as a business leader, something I did for many years prior to moving into technology. One of the things that I think is missing altogether with the Agile movement is that we have completely ignored and to a large extent chastised management as the reason our myriad of Agile transformations have failed to deliver meaningful results, they have not changed the organization to the point that they are operating differently. Mostly the organization continues to operate as it always has, with some agile framework operating on the side, and at worst is creating a secondary and less efficient operating model.

This is why I’m starting to develop a set of information that is management first from an agile perspective. Management is not going away and calling middle management the permafrost that keeps us from being agile, causes mistrust with agile coaches, and misses the point that management must be part of any solution.

Any business, especially one that is successful, has a set of 9 core business operating capabilities, which are:

And within each of these business capabilities exists leaders whose is job it is to oversee the successful operation of their respective business capability.

Over the past 15 years, Agile Transformations have primarily focused on the Information Technology business capability, with an unsuccessful focus on strategic planning and financial management capabilities. What we end up with then is one of the nine business capabilities spinning faster than the rest. This disconnect from the rest of the other business capabilities means that the organization is not agile from a perspective of strategic planning and operational excellence.

Practical Agile Management is a business-first approach to updating your business operating model to become agile from the inside out.

Look for more to come on this approach.

If you would like to learn more, you can reach me at michael@soundagile.com