Why an Agility Map
Since the creation
of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, a large knowledge base on all aspects of Agile
has been created. Books, trainings, blog posts, research papers, and many other
types of materials are being created by the global Agile community everyday.
However, even with this large amount of knowledge at our fingertips, Agile
practitioners are often faced with push-back and other challenges.
One of the biggest
challenges is helping individuals, especially the leaders of an organization,
understand what Agile means to them in the context of their reality. Even
though the Agile Manifesto and the 12 principles have been published for 18
years, my experience clearly shows that the word Agile means different things
to different people. I also believe people's understanding of Agile deepens as
their experience in Agile increases overtime. Because of this fluid nature in
the understanding of Agile, the purpose of the question 'What does Agile mean
to you?" is no longer about whether the answer to the question is right or
wrong. It is about understanding where people are on their own Agile journeys.
To achieve this
level of understanding, it is important to have a frame of reference. I
pictured a tool that people can use to locate where they are on their Agile
journeys and where they need to be next, either as an individual or as an
organization. This tool should also show where every decision lands, so that it
is clear to the decision makers whether the next decision brings their
organization closer to their agility goals or further away from them. So I went
ahead and created a tool called Agility Map. It is inspired by the four Agile
Quadrants that were introduced to me a few years ago by Lyssa Adkins, Michael
Spayd, and Michael Hamman. The Integral Agile Transformation Framework created
by Michael Spayd is also very influential in my thinking.1
About the Agility Map
This Agility Map is
not intended to be a theory or framework that contains all aspects of Agile. It
is simply a tool that provides a frame of reference to Agile practitioners as
they navigate through the complexity of Agile transformation efforts. It is not
perfect. I hope it will evolve over time with the help of fellow Agile
practitioners who want to use it and improve it.
The main structure of the Agility Map is a
variation of the Integral Model created by Ken Wilber.2 The left hand side points to the internal-facing aspects of an
organization, i.e. internal processes and tools, organizational structures, and
culture. The right hand side points to the external-facing aspects, i.e.
products and services, customer interactions, business strategies. The upper
half of the map points to the aspects that a team or a collection of teams can
accomplish. This is where the Agility Map deviates from the Integral Model slightly. In the context of
Agile, I believe the smallest unit is a team. The lower half of the map points
to the aspects that impact a whole organization.
The colored circles can be considered as
another dimension of the Agility Map. The colors represent the organizational
development stages. I adopted a subset of the colors that Fredric Laloux
described in his book Reinventing Organizations.3 Amber represents processes and decisions that are based on the
top-down command and control management style. In organizations that operate
primarily in Amber, conformity is more important that the results. Orange
represents processes and decisions that are results and ego driven. In Orange
organizations, employees are given some level of flexibility on how to achieve
the desired results. Green represents a mindset that is based on empowerment,
participation, and collective wisdom. Most Agile thinking and practices are
rooted in this stage. Teal represents an emerging organizational paradigm known
for its self-organizing and de-centralizing nature.
It is important to
point out that some stages are not inherently better than the others. It
all depends on the social
and economic environment an organization is in.
The 4 quadrants:
Agile Mechanics
This quadrant is the
home of all the internal processes, practices, tools, frameworks, and
technology stacks. Most of the Waterfall processes gather in the Orange space in
this quadrant. Agile practices primarily reside in the Green space. Examples
include Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban; scaling frameworks such
as SAFe and LeSS; engineering practices such as Test Driven Development, Pair
Programming, and decentralized software architecture; DevOps tools and
practices such as Jenkins, Infrastructure as Code, Continuous Integration, and
Test Automation; Agile work management and communication tools such as Jira,
Confluence, and Slack. Basically, this quadrant covers what is often referred
to as "Doing Agile".
Product Agility
Product Agility is
an organization's ability to delight its customers and generate revenue in a
fast changing environment. This is achieved by delivering the right products
and services at the right time. This quadrant is the home of all the mindsets,
practices, and measurements that enable teams to achieve different levels of
Product Agility. Big Bang IT system releases and massive data migrations can be
found in the Orange space in this quadrant. Project based practices such as the
warranty period after a release are also in the Orange space. Examples of items
in the Green space include Value Proposition Canvas, A/B testing, and the true
MVP approach to product development.
Organization Agility
Organization Agility
is the ability to organize and reorganize the employees in an organization
based on shifting business needs and market conditions. Companies with high
Organization Agility are able to reorg with minimum negative impact on customer
experience, team morale, and overall productivity. Different types of
organizational structures occupy different colored spaces in this quadrant. For
example, a multi-level hierarchical organizational structure where the rule of
following the chain of command is strictly enforced occupies the Amber space; a
flat organizational structure with open door policies is in the Green space; if
you walked into a company and found it is difficult to find who the leaders are
because everybody acts like a leader and a doer at the same time, the
organizational structure of this company is probably in the Teal space.
Business Agility
Ken Schwaber,
co-creator of Scrum, stated, "Agility is an organization's ability to
harness change for its competitive advantage". I believe the agility Ken
talks about here is the overall Business Agility of an organization. The items
in this quadrant provide purpose to items in the other three quadrants.
This quadrant
contains business strategies and business objectives such as positioning in an
emerging market, horizontal or vertical growth strategies, and market share
targets. If a company is financially sound, and the business strategy for the
next 3 years is steadily increasing the market share of existing product
offerings, this company is primarily in the Orange space. If a company sets out
to have 30% of its revenue coming from new products, its business strategies
are more likely to be in the Green space.
The level of
Business Agility an organization can achieve depends on the matching conditions
in Agile Mechanics, Organization Agility, and Product Agility. If an
organization is primarily Orange in the other three quadrants, its chances of
achieving Green level Business Agility are low. The Orange items in the other
quadrants will keep the Business Agility on the Orange level. Conversely, when
an organization has a real need to achieve a higher level of Business Agility,
this need pulls its Agile Mechanics, Product Agility and Organization Agility
to advance to the next level.
Two Principles
Principle #1: Sustainable agility is achieved
by balanced advancements in all four quadrants.
Items in all four
quadrants are interdependent. Items on the right hand side of the map, the
external-facing aspects, need to be supported by the internal-facing items on
the left. Otherwise, they will be castles in the air. Conversely, each
internal-facing item on the left needs to find its purpose in the
external-facing items on the right. If an improvement item on the left does not
have a corresponding item on the right, we should question the value this item
delivers before spending time and energy on it. Items in the Organization
Agility quadrant provide the foundations for effective Agile practices. Without
a sound Agile organizational foundation, Agile practices are top-heavy. This
approach is neither effective nor sustainable. Ultimately, all items should
point to the Business Agility quadrant, either directly or indirectly.
When I used the
Agility Map to exam my previous Agile transformation efforts, it is clear that
most of the items are clustered in the Agile Mechanics quadrant. This is an
important visual indicator that the Agile Mechanics items are not balanced with
items in the other quadrants. I believe this imbalance is the root cause of the
challenges we face in many Agile transformation efforts.
Principle #2: Items in the same colored circle
synergize well.
One key benefit of
using the Agility Map is the ability to visualize the correlations of items in
different quadrants by the colored circles they are in. Items in the same
colored circle across the four quadrants synergize well together. Items in
different color circles may not synergize or may even be incompatible. For
example, DevOps practices synergize well with Frequent Releases. Both are in
the Green spaces in their own quadrant. DevOps practices do not provide the
same level of benefits to Big Bang Releases, which is in the Orange space.
How to Use the Agility Map
Here are some ways
Agile practitioners can incorporate the Agility Map in their work.
- Leverage the Agility Map to help design the State of Agile Assessments.
- Generate insight by placing agility findings on the map and applying the two principles.
- Help an organization understand its current state of Agile and identify the next set of goals by visualizing the facts on the Agility Map.
- Track the Agile journey of an organization: where it was; where it is now; where it needs to be next.
This Agility Map can
be used in different organizational context. It can be used at the enterprise
level, or in a business unit, or in a department.
The size of each
item placed on the Agility Map should reflect its relative sizing, including
the effort, risk, or impact of that item.
Here is an example
of mapping the 12 Agile principles. The size of each item can vary based on an
organization's readiness to act on them.
Here is another
simplified example that illustrates how the Agility Map can be used by an Agile
coach:
An Agile coach
assessed the current state of Agile in an organization. She placed the findings
on the Agility Map. She then analyzed the map by applying the two Agility Map
principles. Some insight emerges from the data: the Agile practices that are
being implemented don't have a Product Agility goal; the component based team
structure doesn't synergize well with the Agile practices; it is not clear
which Business Agility goals are more important.
Equipped with this
insight, the Agile coach collaborated with the people she coaches on
identifying where they want to be and how to get there. They started in the
Business Agility quadrant and decided that achieving 21% market share is the
primary goal. This Business Agility goal needs to be supported by faster
product releases. Based on this common understanding, a new goal is identified
in the Product Agility quadrant - monthly release cycles. To achieve this
Product Agility goal, a few items are identified in the left quadrants. The
clearly defined goals on the right hand side provide the purpose and the real
measurements of the team's efforts to improve Agile mechanics and
organizational agility. That means implementing automated functional testing is
not the goal, but a means to get to an end, which is monthly release cycles. So
no matter how many automated test scripts are created, the team's job is not
done until they achieve monthly release cycles. At the same time, the
hypotheses that monthly release cycles will contribute to increasing the market
share is being tested.
In this example, the
arrows with dotted lines point to the purpose of the improvement items; the
arrows with solid lines represent the progression of improvements.
In the spirit of
Minimum Viable Product, I'd call this Agility Map version 1.0. I hope it will
be improved over time with your help. So your comments, criticisms, and
suggestions are not only welcomed but much appreciated.
References:
- Integral Agile Transformation Framework - Michael Spayd http://www.trans4mation.coach/trans4mation-approach/
- Integral Model - Ken Wilber https://integrallife.com/four-quadrants/
- Reinventing Organizations - Fredric Laloux http://www.reinventingorganizations.com/
