As the software market evolves, organizations and enterprises strive to become the best and rapidly adapt to the market. To stay on top of the game, companies have to adapt to changes quickly and always be open to feedback and criticism. Agile Methodology is the go-to framework for organizations to get ahead of the software game and give tough competition to their competitors. Agile delivers value to the product and the organization without consuming much of the company's time. Agile delivers numerous benefits to organizations such as reducing the time to market, giving the company a clear vision, managing large groups of people developing a single product, early return on investment, etc. Agile is not only used in the information technology industry but also utilized in the aerospace, banking, finance, government-based projects, educational sector, etc. Hence, the demand to implement Agile has been on the high since the past decade after companies realized Agile’s true worth.
Companies start with the simple Scrum framework of Agile which requires fewer team members and managing them becomes easier than managing many people. Small teams have become perfect in executing their ideas and thoughts and working together as a group. However, when it comes to larger organizations, there may be chaos and confusion among the team members unless there is a specific pattern of hierarchy and a certain way of working in a team. Complex projects require numerous people to develop and deliver the product. Larger companies used Waterfall to execute their projects which they found easier in the early days. But the competition has grown in the market and consumer behavior has also changed in the past decade. Clients want changes to the product faster and quicker; they want their product to be the best and stay updated according to their user’s feedback, and also want to stay ahead of their competitors. This is not possible using the Waterfall methodology and hence, the need to scale Agile to a larger organization came into the picture. In this article, we discuss the best tips to scale Agile such that you can easily grow as a company using Agile and stay strong in the software game.
Best Tips to Scale Agile
1. Set Up Clear Roles for the Team members
Often when there is a large group working towards a single project, there may be a lack of accountability among the team members and work may not get done as expected. Hence, always divide the work and make small teams which is a foundation of Agile. It believes in establishing small and autonomous teams which brings multiple benefits. When people are put in smaller teams, they become accountable for their work and perform better as they feel their work is recognized. Teams with lesser people are easier to handle and also specialized roles could be given to people with specific skills and easy communication takes place among the team members and also between the Product Owner. Another important thing is that small teams are taught to self-organize and become autonomous so that they can make the best decisions for their team and operate at high efficiency. The Product Owner communicates the vision of the product and its features to the stakeholders and also makes the team understand the features required for the product. The team works one by one on each feature as a User Story based on its priority in the Product Backlog. This kind of model leads to faster product feature delivery and increased customer satisfaction.
2. Getting into the Agile State of Mind
In the traditional methods, the process of development used to be time-consuming as various departments used to work separately. The Developers and the quality analysts were separate teams where the Developers used to complete the task and send for quality analysis for testing the product feature. There used to be confusion between the Definition of Done of the Developers and the QA team. Hence, for the organization to become Agile, they have to change this mindset of working as individuals. The mindset of “I need to finish my User Stories” has to be changed to “We (QA and Developers) as a team has to finish the User Stories together. This means that the Developers are not finished until the product feature they have developed is not tested by the QA. When both the teams work hand-in-hand they create a velocity in the development and delivery process. The Agile mindset of constantly adapting to the change and continuing working as a team has to be built in the people of the organization. When the team works together and considers everyone’s work important, the process of development becomes smoother and better value could be added to the product and the organization.
3. Choosing the best framework
Organizations may start with Scrum as it is the most simple framework in Agile Methodology. In a recent State of the Agile Report, it was seen that Scrum is the most implemented framework and that about 75% of the respondents said that they use Scrum or a hybrid that contains Scrum. You have to be sure which framework would work best based on the requirements of the organization. Here are a few of the popular frameworks you can choose from for scaling Agile development.
1. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
This framework scales Agile practices into three different categories in the organization. They are:
- Portfolio Level: This level contains the Agile leaders who manage the projects from beginning to end.
- Program level: This level uses Agile Release Trains which is a group of 8-12 members who focus on long-term development based on the strategy of the organization.
- Team Level: After the Release Planning takes place, the team plans the Sprint at their level.
2. Scrum@scale
Scrum at Scale helps the team in delivering products in complex environments. It helps multiple teams to deliver products collaboratively in similar complex environments. According to this concept, Everyone becomes a part of the interchangeable Scrum Team, and depending on the goals of the product and the company, the networks of Scrum teams come together and form a collaborative ecosystem. Scrum@scale is designed to build agility for an enterprise, and the basic use is to coordinate the efforts of Scrum teams in delivering a complex product. It provides flexibility to the Scrum team members in multiple ways to develop and deliver the product.
3. Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
Large Scale Scrum focuses on aligning all of the Agile teams to work on the same project as a group. There are two variants of this:
- LeSS- There are up to eight teams with eight people per team.
- LeSS Huge- There are several thousands of people working on the same project.
Consider the variables before choosing the framework and analyzing which framework would best suit your project such that smooth development and delivery occurs. Research on how each different framework would affect your business and what would be the pros and cons that you have to face once you have implemented it.
4. Build a Collaborative Environment
There may be many obstacles and resistances for a company to become Agile both internally and externally. Many would not understand the framework or would have gotten used to their previous software methodologies. Hence, building a solid foundation before you scale Agile across your organization is highly essential. Transparency and visibility should be your paramount values. The key takeaway is that there should be open communication between all the members of the team and everyone should know why they are developing or testing a feature and how it will affect the product. The old hierarchical barriers should be eliminated as there are no such superior or inferior people in an Agile team and everyone supports and collaborates for the product and company to flourish.
Encourage feedback from the Agile team members and establish secure and proper management support so that people can engage and innovate to their highest potential. The team members should support each other and collaborate such that better knowledge sharing and stronger bonds could be established. Practically, to improve better communication, daily stand-up meetings during Sprints should be held so that any potential obstacles can be discussed and any concerns about the work from the team members can be discussed with everyone. The main part is to create an open and collaborative culture where employee engagement is maximum and they also have job satisfaction. This also minimizes the friction between the Agile teams and the rest of the organization.
5. Have a Single Product Backlog
It may occur that scaling Agile to an organizational level would require the Agile teams to create different Product Backlogs for the same product. On the contrary, there should always be a single Product Backlog for a single product, irrespective of the complexity of the product. The Product Backlog refers to the list of tasks which has to be completed for the product to be completed. Having a single Product Backlog for a single product would make things much easier for everyone on the Agile team. There is also one Product Owner for all the Agile teams as well which would also be much easier for all the employees. The key is to make the process of development simple by using a single Product Backlog. They could easily identify the tasks and prioritize key features and make sure that everyone is on the same page. They can communicate and exchange information so that they can develop a market-ready product feature. With this foundation, effective product development and delivery would reflect greatly on the image of the organization and also in their revenue.
6. Reducing the duration of Iteration
The iteration duration in traditional software methodology was stretched over some time such as over a month or year. Agile organizations aim to reduce the duration of iteration such that progress can be seen and better features can be iterated according to the requirement of the users and the demand of the market. Shorter iterations facilitate the workflow across multiple teams and are easy to execute. If the Developers work for a year-long over developing many features without implementing them, there would be many changes in the market in the meantime. Also, when the features do not perform as expected, the motivation among the Developers would be lost. Hence, shorter iterations would uphold the sense of goal in the Developers as they see the results of their work in lesser time. If different teams have different lengths of iterations, start with first syncing the endpoints of the iterations which would be the first step in creating a shorter iteration. The practice of synchronizing the endpoints of the iterations is known as synchronized cadence. This may lead to postponements in the integration process, but this postpone will lead the product in the right direction. It brings balance between the actual productivity and the iteration length. Teams lagging can catch up with everyone and develop using the complete picture of the development process. This also prevents negative cascade effects.
7. Equip the team with the Right Tools
The right balance between the communication and collaboration between the teams and the use of the latest tools in the market would make any organization successful in the long run. Tech tools and the infrastructure lay the foundation for scaling Agile to the next level. Use the best software to create a minimum viable product and continuously iterate smaller product features. Project Management tools are integral to Agile transformation as they help in project planning, execution, release planning, retrospective analysis, and visual reporting. Wrike, Trello, Agile are some of the popular Project Management tools which many organizations use to manage their projects. Scrum-based project management tools such as Vivify Scrum, Yodiz. Jira, Target Process, etc are also favored tools in Project Management.
Conclusion
Scaling Agile in organizations may seem daunting and tedious but by using the proper tips and understanding the mindset of the people, Agile could easily be scaled in the company. Always lay the foundation for Agile in your organization and make sure everyone understands the way how Agile functions. Interact with the employees and make them acknowledge the benefits of Agile and how it would make their work easier. Resolve any resistances in the beginning so that later it does not create any conflict in the working process. By using the right tools, creating a collaborative environment, and building an Agile mindset, there would be much great stability while you scale Agile at an enterprise level.
References
- https://blog.unosquare.com/10-tips-for-scaling-agile-software-development-1
- https://www.restratconsulting.com/post/7-tips-for-scaling-agile
- https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/5-tips-scaling-agile-enterprise-environment
