Your path to Agile at Scale: improving development speed, quality, innovation, and business agility

In this series of dispatches from the field, I analyze how you can better innovative and adopt Agile and DevOps ways of working – to drastically improve development speed, quality, innovation, and business agility.

In this first dispatch, we’ll look at some of the basic barriers to Agile and DevOps adoption at scale and what you can do to overcome them. Our focus will be on scaling up to groups of teams across multiple domains and platforms.

Organizations are seeing their business models and markets go through disruptive changes that require business agility to just keep up with the competition. Most companies have adopted some form of Agile delivery and automation to meet business demands. While most organizations have adopted the tools and frameworks to leverage Agile, too many are struggling with enterprise adoption but are not reaping any benefits. Your move to Agile at Scale can provide the holistic view necessary to splice your legacy systems into the digital DNA of your organization, so your IT can focus on business outcomes that promote true business agility – but only if your organization is ready.

Reaping all the benefits of Agile at Scale starts with asking yourself the right questions

So, how do you make sure you’re ready to implement Agile at Scale effectively? Start with asking yourself these strategic questions:

• Are we, as an organization, fully mature in our current Agile and DevOps frameworks and mindset?
• How should we adopt scaling?
• Which scaling framework should we choose?
• Are we ready for the type of change this will cause?
• Are we committed to making the investment necessary to retool, replatform, and re-architect for long-term success?
• Do we have an adequate change management process in place to help drive and reinforce the change?
• How do we get the business to agree with iterative and incremental delivery?
• How do we get the business to be accountable?
• Are we fully committed to promoting, monitoring, and correcting behavior to execute the changes needed throughout the organization?

Unfortunately, many of these questions are being ignored, resulting in hasty, short-term decisions instead of strategic, long-term ones. In my next dispatch, we’ll look at some common pitfalls to avoid when executing them.

In the meantime, contact me here to find out how you can lay a solid foundation for scaling effectively with Capgemini’s ADMnext.

Robert Wegener

Expert in Agile Transformation, Application Management Services, Microsoft Technologies

My passion has always been introducing new concepts and techniques that drive value and improve agility for our clients.
As an Agile Lead in our digital acceleration center, my focus is on agile transformation across all levels of the enterprise. My IT expertise spans 30 years across multiple business domains. I have successfully transformed many organizations to become more customer-centric while building stronger bonds between IT and their businesses.
I work to create lean-agile leaders and build cases for change while promoting Agile values and principles. I structure the pace of change on an organization’s ability to adopt it, both on a leadership and a cultural level.
My recent work includes:
Coaching and training to over 30 organizations, and publishing numerous articles on agile and change management
Coaching and advisory for a large US auto manufacturer and the team members of its newly formed agile Center of Excellence
Coaching and advisory for a large US telecommunications equipment manufacturer, providing core training to specific teams that drive agile adoption.
I have an educational background in computer science and an MBA in leadership and change management. I am highly skilled in various methods and frameworks and constantly strive for self-improvement, so that I am able to better serve our clients.
In my free time I like to write about topics that interest me and have published many works in various publications. My other activities include coaching, mentoring, and teaching as a Capgemini University and a SAFe-certified instructor.