Brandon, a senior leader, asked, “What is all this hype about agile frameworks and models and practices? Do I really need all that stuff?”
I shook my head and grinned. “Nope. Instead, practice this: make change easy, so you can learn from it. That allows you to change again and faster. Especially for management.”
“That's it?”
“Easy to say,” I said. “Not so easy to do. If teams create sufficient tests, they can support code changes easily. But for managers, it's a little different. How often do you change the project portfolio now?”
He groaned. “We spend months trying to decide what we're going to do for a year. Less than a month later, we change it.”
“If it's difficult for you to decide, you're probably trying to decide too much at one time. Your decision batch size is too big. Does that make sense to you?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“If you consider fewer things, it's easier and faster to decide the first time. And when the teams have less to consider, they can decide and finish faster.”
He nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Then, you can learn from what the teams finished and make your next batch of decisions.”
He nodded. “So I don't need any of these frameworks at all.”
I shook my head. “Nope, you don't. Not if you can keep the cost of change low.”
When we make change easier, it costs less to change. And we can learn earlier and faster. That allows us to change faster. That's a reinforcing feedback loop that encourages management agility. In turn, management agility creates the environment for team agility.
If your agile transformation isn't working, consider how you can create a culture of management agility first. Don't start with teams. Start with managers.