As agile thinking moves into mainstream adoption in the business world, how to balance user agility with IT cloud strategy?
The smartest people in business are always on, always available and, with the right technologies, always fast and responsive.
That’s how many of us have always seen ourselves, and it can be frustrating when others fall short of our standards. The difference today though is that this description can finally be applied to every successful person in every successful business.
So how has today’s agile and flexible workforce come about, and what opportunities and challenges does it present to IT?
Agile goes mainstream
IT developed the Agile methodology in order to exploit and keep up with constant changes in technology, business needs and user expectations. The Agile methodology grew up in software development, where it was adopted as a project management approach that was able to flex to changing demands throughout system development and beyond.
More than anything else, it was a reaction against what we know as the ‘waterfall’ model of change management – the notion that we can somehow put together a plan, go away and develop a solution, often over a long time period, and deliver the perfect solution that meets every stakeholder need. What Agile acknowledged was that by the time the solution went live, the original requirements were likely to have changed beyond recognition. In response, the Agile methodology brought in a more incremental approach to development and change management, and today’s IT cloud strategy provides a flexible platform for this approach.
As it turned out, the ‘waterfall’ problem wasn’t confined to IT development projects.
In research carried out last year by ?What If!, 28 percent of UK executives said they believed their traditional business model would simply cease to work within three years. So we see that agile thinking has now crossed over into mainstream business use, and agile thinking is embraced by CEOs who can see how responsive and flexible their organisation needs to be.
Agile can come at a cost
But even though agile thinking makes perfect sense in terms of flexible planning, it can be a tough move for organisations to make, and can result in increased responsibilities for employees. Google’s much-vaunted ‘20 percent time’ is based on the notion that a company’s greatest innovation successes come from small-scale initiatives and new ideas rather than monolithic projects. The ?What If! research, the study also reported that 62 per cent of executives said that their rigid organisational structures made it “almost impossible” to develop and test new ideas.
Agile thinking does change that, flattening out hierarchies and channelling on-the-ground initiatives, but it’s not without its challenges. “I’ve got to tell you the dirty little secret of Google’s 20 per cent time,” said ex-Google boss Marissa Mayer. “It’s really 120 per cent time.” Organisations need these new ideas but they are not making time for them, they are requiring staff to work more and they are leveraging technology to make that happen. That’s stretching and testing IT more than ever.”
How technology can support this
The flexible technologies and agile thinking that IT has delivered as an enabler for the ‘always on’ culture are intensely rewarding, but at the same time they can place considerable strain on the workforce. IT cloud strategy and BYOD are here to stay, and offer unprecedented flexibility, but IT departments need to think strategically about how to create the optimum conditions for the new user agility. It’s not simply a matter of employees bringing their own devices. It’s about putting in place technologies and services that will free up time and deliver the flexibility needed while maintaining security. For innovation and agility to flourish, a constant flow of real-time information is needed. A good Managed Print Service strategy is one element that can help, making information – whether digital or printed – more accessible.
Takeaways:
- The IT Agile methodology has moved into mainstream adoption, under the guise of ‘agile thinking’.
- ‘Waterfall’ thinking isn’t a problem that’s restricted to IT projects – it can be a barrier to change more broadly.
- Agile thinking encourages innovation but can also place a burden on the workforce.
- The technologies that support agility need to be underpinned by robust security mechanisms.
- With digitisation, organisations can enjoy the benefits of agile thinking without the burden.