AGILE-ITY Transformation Services
Avoid Leading Causes of Agile Project Failures
At Agile-ity, we firmly believe that Agile & Lean Methods deliver real business value much quicker than legacy software development lifecycles (SDLC). Agile development reduces risk and improves responsiveness to customer needs. We can help you realize these benefits by guiding your team through the transition from SDLC to Agile processes, such as Scrum, Scrumban, Kanban or Scaled Agile. We can supply training and on-site mentoring to coach your team through the critical stages of the transition. Our Scrum implementations
maximize ROI by delivering high-value features early in the cycle. The time to market per feature is reduced by 50% or more of the industry average.
We leverage our agile and enterprise delivery experience to guide organizations struggling under legacy processes to realize new levels of responsiveness, flexibility, and visibility with their custom designed agile
methods grounded in the reality of your current organization and culture.
Agile-ity Inc. Delivers Custom Solutions:
Agile Assessments for Transformation
Collaboration and Visibility are core concepts in Agile Development, and they are the foundation of our approach to make sure you succeed in your organizational change efforts. At Agile-ity, we treat our transformation engagements like a Scrumban project, continually assessing and reprioritizing our efforts and services based on your progress and level of adoption. We believe that significant changes are slow, risky, and expensive, so we focus on near-term improvements that bring measurable results. We provide the support you need without overwhelming your ability to enact the changes required to make the transformation.
Core benefits include:
- In-depth training in all steps of a Scrum framework, from planning through delivery
- Templates and quantitative techniques for estimating work and tracking progress
- A structured mentoring process during each phase of your Agile projects
- Unfiltered visibility into the status of your projects
Key Activities In Phases
Agile Assessments:
Before starting an enterprise transformation, we will conduct an Agile Maturity Assessment to understand the challenges of the business, so that we can formulate a strategy and execution plan.
• Work with stakeholders to understand needs
• Perform an evaluation of tools, processes, resources, and personnel
• Utilize “Agile Maturity Assessment Interviews” to understand the current state
Tool Assessment:
The first step in our implementation process is to assess your environment, to understand your business processes and your current tool setup. Tools don’t
make an organization “Agile, ” but the right tool can facilitate the transition. The real value lies in understanding how you deliver business value and then configuring a tool or suite of tools to make the process and outcomes transparent and visible to all stakeholders.
Foundational Planning:
The purpose of this phase is to establish and set up the “backlog” for your transformation. Agile-ity consultants will meet with the Steering Committee
(key decision makers, influencers, and stakeholders) frequently during this phase, to clarify the scope and get consensus on critical policy decisions.
The main activities and goals for this period include:
• Initial scope definition/Understand the organization challenges
• Develop the timeline for the transition process
• Creation of the initial transition backlog
• Selection of the transition team members
Tool Setup and Configuration
We will set up the new systems, and configurations based on a mutual understanding of the desired end state. As we configure the new systems, we will meet and review with designated Client Product Owners to gain feedback, adapt & iterate the solution to better address your needs. We will work through the product backlog and prioritize the work as desired by Client Product Owner.
Transition:
During this phase, Agile-ity consultants act both as domain experts in Scrum and Scaled Agile frameworks as well as Product Owners, working with the Transition Team. They maintain the Transition Backlog and guide the new Scrum Team in their journey to achieve the desired level of performance while executing their project.
Key activities and goals for this phase include:
• Definition of the Scrum ceremonies and cadence to be followed by the Scrum Teams
• Training the Scrum Teams in Scaled Agile if required
• Customized workshops for specific roles and roadblock topics
• Coaching for Scrum Teams
• Conduct customized workshops and coaching Scrum Teams
• Preparing for the first Sprint of the new Scrum Teams
Advisory Services:
This phase provides continuing support for new Scrum Teams. These Teams should be able to function on their own in general, but will often encounter new situations for which expert advice will be helpful recognizing Agile anti-patterns and suggesting methods to allow the team to move past each impediment.
In the Advisory Service / Maintenance phase, clients are also provided access to:
• Agile coaching
• Lean Engineering Practices coaching
• Remote support from Agile-ity team of experts
Agile-ity Roles During Transformation Effort
In each of these phases depending on client requirements our team of experts will be utilized to fill the following positions:
• Coaches – Work in the trenches with team members on day-to-day tasks to guide team through new processes
• Consultants – Act as a Solutions Architect to uncover underlying issues and create a holistic solution.
• Scrum Master/ Product Owner – Act as experts in the roles of Scrum alongside team or augmented into team
Financial Return On Investment & Organizational Benefits:
Due to the proven methods used in our delivery of rapid transformations, we can effectively show the impact of our efforts to your organization compared to the costs of our services.
Typical results include:
• A 15% reduction in delivery time
• The delivery time is often improved by 30% when teams fully embrace Agile
Engineering Practices
• Reduction of technical debt and increase in output of 10-20%
• Increase ROI and predictability of projects
• Ability to design customer interaction cycles into the development process
• Opportunity to release functionality in shorter periods
• Start revenue generation while still in the development process
• Reduce risk of projects
• Improve market responsiveness
• Align development with actual rather than anticipated customer needs
• Improve market positioning resulting in better margins and market share
• Introduce the ability to incorporate innovation cycles as part of the process
• Dynamically align resources to projects/needs with the highest value
Scalable Adoption Services:
Agile adoption at scale is not an easy process, and it requires an organization designed to be able to scale our efforts in conjunction with your desired schedule. Agile-ity leverages our network of Lean professionals and trainers to scale resources aligned with your project needs.
Qualified Solution Architects and Technology Leaders:
John Gillespie founder of Agile-ity Inc. comes to each assignment armed with better than twenty years of “Real World” experiences as an executive consultant in software project delivery and lean enterprise transformations in industries ranging from gaming to financial services and pharmaceuticals. Many organizations supply agile coaches who have never had the responsibility of delivering software at scale using agile methods. Another limitation of many “Agile Consultants” is that they do not possess hands on lean engineering practices.
Knowing how to “walk the walk” positions John and his professional network in the sweet spot of being able to lead clients in their journey to improve their ability to deliver business value. Our ability to understand the culture and demands that lie within a large organization helps us create solutions that are functional and efficient for our clients.
