Embracing agile strategy


Agile vs. Waterfall strategy side-by-side comparison table

"Agile is something you are, not something you do. If you take nothing else from all these words, take this. Agile is not a checklist, methodology, or a series of rituals. Agile is a way of thinking and a way of attacking problems. Embrace mistakes, learn, and keep trying. Mess up and learn again and again and again. Cut your losses. Fail forward fast. It's okay. You won't get fired. You're learning. That is Agile."

(18F: https://agile.18f.gov/agile-is-something-you-are/)

The meaning of Agile 

Influencers, innovators, and disruptors talking Agile from any on-net appliance only increase entropy. They praise something which is not well-defined or explained. 

Still, every enterprise wants or claims to be agile to fit the Industry 4.0 agenda. We take this as a given despite the confusion with basic definitions. Please refer to this post to view our take on the hot topic of Agile definitions.

Out of dozens of possible explanations of Agile, the most appealing to us is the one by Atlassian: "You're only as #agile as your ability to ship frequently and without drama."

Every organization becomes agile for a short period when a big boss demands miracles. Suddenly, the governance becomes not that rigid, watchdogs - not that bloodthirsty, and the band of stakeholders plays rapidly and smoothly. The only problem is that miracles do not happen daily.

Waterfall vs. agile strategy

Perhaps, embracing agility could be easier by breaking this multi-dimensional concept into smaller distinctive pieces. Any fragment brings some valuable ideas that could be implemented without a "paradigm shift." 

Let's try to cut the strategy into edible chunks. 

The traditional ("waterfall") strategies are made as if we are to escape from Grimpen Mire, where we only know the first and the last step. So, we jump into the unknown driven by intuition and stay on a predefined course unless drowning. 

We revisit these strategies annually, sometimes to declare the end of the current course. Then we start a new cycle still favoring the certainty and accuracy of underlying assumptions.

The agile strategy assumes a somewhat different approach: 
  • frequent reviews and adjustments, 
  • post-factum hypothesis ("retrospectives") 
  • granular roadmaps and iterative performance checks, 
  • self-organized teams empowered to change the direction, exercise fit-for-purpose governance, etc.
Please look at the summary table and tell if the agile strategy is meaningful, realistic, and achievable. At least, it seems so. 

This blog is featured by Feedspot among the Top 35 Procurement Blogs. Please vote for us!


To keep receiving new insights and research, please subscribe here. 


More information on this and other exciting topics can be found in "The Technology Procurement Handbook." It represents 23 years of experience, billions of dollars worth of successful sourcing projects, and 1000s of hours spent on research, analysis, and content creation for the most demanding professional readers.
The Technology Procurement Handbook front page
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

The Importance of Supply Chain Collaboration

Image
  Why is supply chain collaboration essential? Once, I was asked what makes the supply chain important to a company. Our profession may not be rocket science. Other peers around the company overlap with us in their functions - Technology tends to manage suppliers , Finance owns the demand planning and budgeting , and Sales and Marketing monopolize the end-customer value chain.  These and other colleagues do not always appreciate us; some believe they are even better at our job.  Shadow procurement, supply chain, and logistics have become standards for many companies.  However, some critical differentiators - like collaboration - justify the very existence of our profession!  The supply chain is the most collaborative function in the business.  We find peers everywhere, even behind enemy lines. We welcome any opportunity to form a cross-functional team with anyone who can bring business value through supply chain strategies, sales  and operations planning,  inventory management,   B
Read more

The Discovery of Procurement Value

Image
Procurement value demystified Unfortunately, " procurement value " became another buzzword – everyone tells us to generate, capture, and sustain it.  This post attempts to provide the most comprehensive view on procurement value and practical methods of its realizations compared to many other web sources replicating slogans and mystifying logical and straightforward concepts.  The meaning of value Value is not substantive. It is rather adjectival. It characterizes something or results from the application of something. It doesn't exist in its raw form; it's being created. It's a universal differentiator between good and bad things or actions. This 1914 philosophical article defines value  as the object of proper judgment . How easier does it make the explanation of value? The value is equally apparent for those who know the truth.  Therefore, we will give different definitions, not pretend to have found the unilateral value formula. Value is paramount t
Read more

The New Looking of Industrial Buying

Image
Industrial buying has been subjected to research for over a half-century.  Instead of treating the act of buying as a spontaneous event, researchers viewed it as a series of patterns explained by the nature of actors, demands, and relationships.   Such a new looking provides a relationship-centric context of industrial buying instead of superficial product characteristics shaping the entire process. Buygrid Framework : An Introduction to Industrial Buying Theory  The Buygrid Framework  (1967)  classical procurement theory analyzes the industrial (B2B) buying behavior and business processes.  It presents industrial buying not as a single event but as an organizational decision-making process where multiple individuals decide on a purchase.  The framework comprises a matrix of " buyclasses " and "buy phases." Buy phases Buy phases pretty much remind the steps of the source-to-contract cycle: identification of needs, establish specifications, Search for alternatives, e
Read more