“Everyone wants better. No one wants change.”
– Jonathan Fields
INITIATING AGILE TRANSFORMATIONS
There is a difference between being agile and doing agile. Adopting agile practices alone will not sustain true agility over time. In short, an organization must recognize the “What” and “Why” of agility before diving in to “How”. At Scrumatics, we believe that it is paramount for a transformation strategy be grounded in recognizing the reality of where one is at the moment while maintaining a relentless focus on where one might like to be. All of this comes at a cost though. Effort without appropriate investment or an investment in effort without a means to measure results will not lead to “better” or “change”.
THE SCRUMATICS WAY
Let’s cut to the chase. Scrumatics offers a three-step pragmatic approach to help organizations adopt and execute Agile transformations. Please note, these steps are recommended but not mandated to be executed sequentially in every case. The sequencing and duration of each step could vary per client’s current state of agility.
Step 1 : ASSESMENT
WHAT
A 2-day onsite assessment of the client’s readiness and motivation to adopt agile to be gauged through discussions with various personas in their organizational hierarchy (i.e.: executives, senior leaders, middle management and delivery teams).
WHY
To learn about the client’s maturity of strategy and structure in areas such as (but not limited to) operational spending models, product time to market metrics, employee compensation models, productivity enhancement strategies and project delivery metrics around infrastructure maturity, engineering practices and business value measures.
GOAL
Walk away with techniques to increase revenue potential, improve strategic planning, reduce inefficient spending, and mitigate risk as well as an understanding of how scaling agile can impact an organization and considerations that might be needed in preparation for taking this step in an incremental fashion across the enterprise.
Step 2 : BUY IN
WHAT
A one-day leadership immersion workshop for the client’s executive and senior leadership to be focused on developing a shared understanding on the vocabulary and applicability of the values and principles that form the bedrock of an agile implementation and from which any agile journey must begin. Additionally, participants will learn how to develop a backlog of organizational challenges for remediation as well as opportunities to support the adoption of agile in their organization.
WHY
To create a path for organizational agility, leaders must recognize the need for how roles currently defined in a traditional organization might need to be revisited when adopting agile as well as pitfalls which may occur from not doing so. Additionally, acquiring an understanding of some of the most common agile implementation approaches, the types of solutions for which they are appropriate, as well as considerations for adoption of the same can set the pace for the progress of the journey thereafter.
GOAL
Walk away with techniques to increase revenue potential, improve strategic planning, reduce inefficient spending, and mitigate risk as well as an understanding of how scaling agile can impact an organization and considerations that might be needed in preparation for taking this step in an incremental fashion across the enterprise.
Step 3 : COMPETENCE
The client teams and their immediate leadership would need to be trained on the relevant agile principles and practices as applicable to the context of respective initiatives and/or projects. This competence program will be custom designed per the findings from steps 1 and 2.
Market Buzz
Aakash is a successful champion for Scrum. He was definitely not given the most plum assignment at Freddie Mac. Not only was it challenging to apply Scrum to a body of work that did not perfectly fit but he was also the sole voice of the company’s training and coaching community in the organization’s infrastructure IT space. However, his firm commitment and great ideas/inputs as well as transparency with concerns and suggestions were incredibly helpful to the company and greatly appreciated. Aakash has my highest recommendation when it comes to training teams and organizations on Scrum transformation and implementation.
Aakash was extremely effective as a Scrum Coach and Trainer at Capital One and helped the organization through the early stages of their Scrum maturity. He successfully introduced our department to Scrum principles, educated the management teams and guided the Scrum implementation and transformation for each of the 40 Agile teams. As the teams progressed with Agile, Aakash was instrumental in their continued progress and development. Embracing Agile/Scrum in any organization is a huge mindset change. Aakash was one of the few coaches at Capital One who was able to efficiently convey this philosophy to various level of leadership while offering very practical and appropriate solutions to the teams he supported. He is a successful champion of Scrum and I would highly recommend Aakash for any Scrum training and coaching, especially Scrum transformations in a large organization.
I had the pleasure of working with Aakash for over a year, collaborating on an Agile transformation journey of significant size. My experience with Aakash, both as a coach and trainer exceeded expectations. He is very knowledgeable and comes with a wealth of experience which helped accelerate the transformation journey. His excellent communication and listening skills helped highlighting areas of focus and pain points in a short time. His breadth of experience allowed him to speak to a variety of issues which came up throughout the time. He struck perfect balance between allowing teams to learn by experimenting and learn while still keeping them on the right path. I have no reservations to say that he is an exceptional Agilist and an awesome trainer. I would love to work with Aakash again and highly recommend him as a coach and a trainer.