Forget received ideas!

We often tend to think that agility was born in 2001 with the publication of the famous Agile Manifesto, or that it only describes working methods for software development. To understand what agility is (and what it is not), it is necessary to understand its origins.

The origins of agility

Agility is not a new trend! Although agility has been democratized in companies since the 80s, its origins go back to the dawn of the 20th century, with the various Industrial Revolutions which were about to upset the organization of work.

Taylorism and Fordism

(Late 19th - early 20th century) Taylorism is an organization of work theorized by the American engineer Frederick W. Taylor from the 1880s. To illustrate this, we can think about this famous image of Charlie Chaplin on his assembly line in Modern Times.

• Production is broken down into micro-tasks assigned to a specialized worker.
• A vertical organization of work, in silos: engineers think about the work to do, and workers must carry it out in accordance with the instructions and training that the former provide.

From 1908, Henri Ford introduced new principles to form what is known as Fordism:

• Sharing a common vision makes workers more involved and therefore, more productive.
• Raising base wages by indexing them to production increases the purchasing power of employees, so they can buy the cars they build and become brand ambassadors.
• Designing and building cars that are easy to maintain and drive, which are adapted to the consumers' needs and constraints, increases the sales.

The Toyota Production System

However, it was in Japan, with the Toyoda family, that agility found its roots with the creation of the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937. But after World War II, the car factory was faced with a lack of liquidity, warehouse space, and natural resources.

Seeking to eliminate waste from the manufacturing cycle (and thus save money), the Toyoda family developed the Toyota Production System (TPS), a system allowing real time production according to customer demand, and therefore without excessive production… What Americans would call lean manufacturing.

The "TPS" then lays down the main principles of agility. It introduces in particular:

• a culture of continuous improvement and employee empowerment (kaizen),
• labeling (Kanban) to manage parts to be produced or delivered and thus avoid waste,
• adaptation to change,
• respect of employees,
• the strength of teamwork,
• the importance of a long-term philosophy rather than short-term financial goals.

But we are still far from talking about agility or liberated company...

Did you say VUCA?

VUCA is an acronym describing the current era. Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity These are the significant features of our environment.

Godfrey Reggio's 1982 experimental documentary film Koyaanisqatsi perfectly illustrates this VUCA worldview. The acronym VUCA comes from the military world. It was first used by the Army War College in the USA to describe the state of the world at the end of the Cold War. And it did not really improve since...

Let's see what is behind those 4 letters:

• V for Volatility Changes are increasingly unpredictable and out of control: we need to adapt to them by responding quickly. In everyday life, volatility sometimes prevents us from distinguishing what is important and what is urgent.

• U for Uncertainty The environment requires us to act quickly but also without any certainty. No one can anticipate what tomorrow will bring!

• C for Complexity Our current world is complex, with many interrelated components, which makes it difficult to analyze and anticipate.

• A for Ambiguity Due to its complexity, the environment is not well known, and can be subject to different interpretations. Ambiguity leads to misunderstandings and conflicts of interest: people lose sight of their objectives, and consensus is difficult.

Companies are directly impacted by the VUCA environment

In the mid-1980s, companies were directly impacted by these adaptation issues to changes in their environment.

Several managers and economists diagnosed the problem and sought the first steps of solutions based on:

• simplicity,
• corporate culture,
• autonomy,
• skills development.

The notion of agility appears to be found for the first time in 1991, in a book on 21st century industrial business strategy written at the request of the US Congress. The authors (S. Goldman, K. Preiss, R. Nagel, and R. Dove) suggest that to remain competitive in the post-industrial era, US companies must quickly adopt "new agile manufacturing strategies". The agile transformation is underway...

4th industrial revolution and the rise of agility in IT

The 4th Industrial Revolution acted as an accelerator, making the world ever more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The actors of this digital revolution are seizing the notion of agility to develop new production methods. In 2001, around twenty developers signed together the Agile Manifesto.

The way in which the digital world works today has impacted the way we work and organize ourselves. We are increasingly subject to change, which is constantly pushing us to innovate. As competition becomes more reactive and resources become scarcer, we are forced to adapt more and more quickly.

In response to this, the agile culture has gradually spread around the world...

Being agile and doing agile

"Agility is the ability to create and answer to change. It is a way of managing, and ultimately succeeding, in an uncertain and turbulent environment." - Agile Alliance

If it is common to distinguish between being agile and doing agile, it is because agility implies a commitment to certain values (those in particular of the Agile Manifesto) and cannot be summed up solely into practices that are only the tip of the iceberg.

Agility is first and foremost a culture, a way of understanding our work. This mindset is defined by the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto. Once the culture is there, we can establish working frameworks, agile practices that share the same values and principles.

The example of Spotify to understand the agile mindset.

Spotify is a Swedish music stream platform. This video explains how Spotify scaled up and implemented a real corporate agile culture, so much so that today Spotify is an agile framework in the same way as Scrum or SAFe.

What can we learn from the Spotify model?

• Promote team autonomy Spotify teams work in small project teams: they are multidisciplinary squads on long-term assignments. Every squad is autonomous and responsible for its projects. They are all aligned with a common product vision and short-term goals.

• Communication is key! The more the teams understand and commit to goals, the more autonomy managers can give them on how to achieve these goals. But to prevent everyone from doing whatever, the manager must be transparent about the why, and delegate the how. Therefore, he must regularly communicate with his teams to stay on course! The squads can then work together and share their best practices: a culture of sharing and mutual support is established between the squads. A pollination of practices and knowledge occurs.

• Sharing culture and skills management All of this is possible because Spotify is deeply focused on people and valuing their talents. Everybody is in the same boat! Employees have the opportunity to meet and exchange within a skilled community, and to be mentored or coached by other employees with more experience.

• The agile mindset: easy to understand, difficult to implement The concept of agility is easy to understand, but its culture is difficult to implement in a company, since it is about infusing a new philosophy, and getting people on board takes time. (As we know, people do not like change...)

A Manifesto to guide them all

Agility enthusiasts keep coming back to it, and so do its detractors. Despite its age, it is still relevant today. How to explain an eternal return to the Agile Manifesto? How can we justify the relevance and scope of this one-page document, written in February 2001?

It is February 2001, 17 software development specialists are meeting in a cabin in Utah to enjoy the snowy slopes, to relax, but above all to exchange and discuss their respective working methods. Together, they form the Agile Alliance and write the Agile Manifesto, which brings together the essential criteria for defining a new way of developing software.

The 4 values of the Agile Manifesto

"We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
• That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."

The last sentence is important, because it avoids misconceptions such as "Agile projects are anarchy because there is no plan", or "as there is not contract in agile the customer changes his mind all the time!".

To go further: the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto also comes with 12 principles:

• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
• Welcome changing requirements, even in late development. Agile processes exploit change to give the customer a competitive advantage.
• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
• Users or business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
• Working software is the primary measure of progress.
• Agile processes promote sustainable development. Together, the sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
• Simplicity –the art of maximizing the amount of work not done– is essential.
• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

How do the values and principles of this manifesto actually apply in companies?

To bring our beliefs to life, and since it is less about planning than adapting, agility is a culture we made our own. To grow without losing our authenticity, we had to adapt. In order to grow without betraying ourselves, to evolve without losing our values, we adopted this agile spirit.

Our disruptive logic, based on agile values and principles, puts the individual at the center. Agility is, in our eyes, a lever for development, innovation and growth.

At Extia, we combine agility and employee engagement. Our presence in the Great Place to Work ranking since 2012 allows us to maintain our continuous improvement approach, and ensure that Extia remains a company that is good to work for.

In our own humble way, we created our own seven-point manifesto.

Learn from your mistakes

"I never lose. I either win or learn" - Nelson Mandela

Good news, you're not perfect. So, it is likely (and desirable) that you make mistakes, make bad decisions, and sometimes wonder off the wrong path. What matters to us is:

• That you don't hide your difficulties, so others can help you without wasting time, “fail but fail fast”.
• That you learn from your mistakes so that you don't make the same ones over and over again.

Be yourself

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken" - Oscar Wilde

You were recruited for Who you are. No need to make up a character for yourself and trying to be like someone else. Instead, allow yourself to be yourself, and let your personality shine through: you will save yourself some time, and you will save time for others. In short, cultivate your own garden and grow your talents.

Build quality relationships

“Interactions first, processes later” - Agile Manifesto

We could have the best tools, processes, and products on earth, nothing could ever replace great relationships. And that means very simple things:

• ""Smiling:"" on the phone, in a hallway (and even on public transport!), a smile can be heard, seen, and allows you to get closer to others.
• ""Feedback:"" do you have something to say to someone? Say it with kindness. Someone is giving you feedback? Take it as an opportunity to better yourself.
• ""Responsiveness:"" there is no point in sweeping problems under the rug. Learn to deal with them and those of others quickly. How? Just by talking about it.

Engage in a continuous improvement process

"It is important not merely to foresee the future, but to bring it about" - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Extia is your company. Each and every one of us is responsible for making it an innovative, friendly and successful company. You will never be criticized for having ideas. On the other hand, no unrealistic conclusions, nor problem without solution! Something doesn't seem to work? Do you want to suggest an idea? Say it out loud and participate in the overall dynamic of continuous improvement.

Do your best every day

"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"- Thomas Edison

We are competitors at heart. We want to succeed, win, and do better every day than the day before. Beyond results, we value effort and work. Because they always end up paying off.

Trust yourself, and trust us

"He who does, is he who knows" - Extia maxim

Extia trusts you. Of course, at the beginning, you will have objectives of means and metrics to respect. Do not forget that you have the chance to benefit from the feedback of all the people who have done the job before you. These metrics are here to help you structure your activity and give you a reference framework. Once you have mastered the fundamentals of the trade, you will be able to move away from the framework and find your own style. But in the meantime, stay humble, work, and learn.

Have fun

“We don't work, we play” - Arnaud Frey

Do we really need to discuss the words of Extia's founder and president ;-)? If you're in doubt, go and see him!

We mentioned the principles of the agile mindset, but what do we mean by agile method?

When it comes to doing agile, the term "agile method" comes up very often.

THE agile method does not exist. The agile mindset does exist, but there is not just one and unique way to do agile. We often read that Scrum would be this famous agile method... but there are many others... There is no agile "recipe", with predefined ingredients and steps to be carried out in precise order. Methods, practices, techniques, frameworks... All these terms are valid in different situations to designate various ways of doing agile. For simplicity, we will talk about agile approaches. To find out more about how specific agile approaches work, you can see the "Agility and product" course.

Non-agile approaches

There is no universal term for non-agile approaches. We can find various terms: traditional project management, V-cycle, waterfall, predictive...

Predictive approaches are like an Ikea assembly guide: the steps are sequential, one after another, and the promise of the deliverable is announced from the start.

The customer draws up specifications for everything they expect in his final product: the functional specifications and the technical specifications. Once validated, these specifications evolve very little, which leaves very few opportunities for changes.

The product is then designed according to these specifications, and then comes the acceptance test with the customer to ensure that the product complies to their requirements.

However, this kind of process leads to a tunnel effect which can be harmful and conflictual in the VUCA world in which we must operate today.

A 2014 survey by the Standish Group found the following:

• 35% of IT projects are failures,
• 52% only succeed at the cost of significantly exceeding time and budget, while providing less functionality than what was required
• only 16% of projects can be considered successful.

Factors that lead to the failure of these projects include:

• Lack of end-users’ involvement
• Incomplete framing at the beginning of the project
• Change of specifications during the project
• Agile approaches: getting out of the tunnel effect
• Agile approaches aim to get out of this tunnel effect. This is how Agile Alliance defines them:

"An agile method is an iterative and incremental approach to software development, carried out in a highly collaborative way by empowered teams applying minimal ceremonial that produces, within a constrained time frame, high quality software that meets the changing needs of users." - Agile Alliance

Let's break down the definition

An iterative and incremental approach

• Iteration: This means starting over several times to improve the solution. This is done by testing and experimenting several times to adjust and match the solution to the needs and expectations of the user or customer. The latter can therefore see the work done and provide feedback...

• Incrementation: An incremental project is built step by step, by breaking it down into small work phases. These work phases are then prioritized: what are the main features? Which ones are essential? Which ones are secondary?

• Empowered and collaborative teams : Each team member is chosen for their experience and their personality to achieve complementarity. The emphasis is on team communication and collaboration between different stakeholders.

• Minimal ceremonial To function as an agile team, there is no need for long meeting without an agenda. Each meeting has a specific subject and a time limit to be respected to make them as effective as possible.

• Users with changing needs Several years can pass between the beginning and the end of a project: uses and technologies evolve quickly. By focusing the project on the user, it allows to create a product that adapts to such evolutions. This does not mean agreeing to everything, but rather making it easier to integrate changes and reverse priorities if needed.

Conclusion

According to the Standish Group report:

• 42% of agile projects are successful, 8% fail
• 26% of waterfall projects are successful, 21% fail

Establishing an agile framework enables to overcome the weaknesses of traditional waterfall methods. By organizing themselves into small, autonomous, and multidisciplinary teams, agile teams are less subject to the tunnel effect and can be more responsive to changes and developments!

We are coming to the end of this first course. Let's look at the main lessons together, through ten key elements.

• Agility is an approach, a mindset, a culture.
• Agility appeared in the world of software development.
• Agility extends to management and organizations.
• There is no such thing as one agile method, even if we can refer to agile methods.
• The spirit of agility - its values and principles - are defined in the Agile Manifesto.
• Scrum and Kanban, to name a few, are tools at the service of the agile culture.
• The popularity of agility is due to its adaptability to uncertainty and change.
• There is no practical methodological guide to agility.
• Behind agility lays the notion of adaptability.