Process alone is fragile. Agile is a mindset.
Nearly 17 years ago, the Agile Manifesto set forth principles for an iterative, adaptable means to deliver valuable technology to market. Since that time, Agile has evolved into an umbrella methodology, sparking iterative development frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming; and amplifying the impact of iterative frameworks in related fields such as Lean Startup and Design Thinking. Arguably no philosophy other than Agile has played a greater role in facilitating âsoftware eating the worldâ.
While Agile thinking has enabled modern, high-growth companies to quickly build products that compete with traditional alternatives, established companies remain perplexed that Agile methods within their own environments too often fail to bring their own disruptive innovation to market.Â
In The Startup Way, Eric Ries underscores how an Agile mindset is at odds with traditional organizational design.Â
According to Ries, established companies tend to structure their organizations based on the legacy of Alfred Sloanâs âdecentralization with coordinated controlsâ and Scientific Management. While Scientific Managementâs rigorous forecasting can facilitate efficient production at scale and cultivate accountability, it discourages unpredictability and experimentation.Â
Through the lens of Scientific Management, Agile looks an awful lot like a process whose purpose is to increase efficiency or predict timing of software delivery, not an adaptable approach for teams to continuously develop valuable technology and adjust quickly to customer needs. The Agile mindset is difficult to capture on paper, which makes it challenging for corporate organizations to implement within familiar frameworks.
As a result, too many companies institute an Agile process, not an Agile mindset, spending enormous budgets to revamp large scale processes without committing to shifting core beliefs surrounding their product organizations. Â
It seems counter-intuitive to put effort behind delivery transformation initiatives that require product teams to comply with complex âagileâ rules and milestones when the very nature of the Agile mindset is about committing to focused learning and embracing uncertainty.Â
Agile's iterative frameworks exist to find and build a minimum viable product as quickly as possible, learn from itâs successes and failures, then iterate. Process alone may standardize schedules and promote efficiency, but it misses opportunities to uncover meaningful products and features through repeated hypothesis testing and measured failure. Without organizational structures in place that promote all forms of product discovery - including fast failure - Agile and delivery transformation are simply buzzwords.
Janice Fraser offered some truly transformational advice to leaders of established companies in her talk at Mind the Product San Francisco Conference in 2017, which can be found above.
1. Value small, fully dedicated Agile teams and hold them to different standards than other functions.Â
2. Invest in them as if they were a startup seeking funding, rewarding results with autonomy while limiting potential for loss.Â
3. Openly discuss specific learning that results from their failures and incorporate across the organization.Â
4. Provide runway for their productâs long term impact, as opposed to repercussions for missing short term estimates.Â
Eric Ries suggests, âmodern management requires a long-term philosophy coupled with extremely rapid experimentation to discover which strategies will support a long term vision.â Adopting a truly Agile mindset can provide a means to discover and deliver that vision. Processes alone are simply fragile.














