We live at a time where almost everything is constantly changing at a rampant pace. It goes without saying that businesses must adapt better to the ever-changing needs of consumers to meet & exceed expectations, in terms of quality and being agile to deliver awe-inspiring experiences in record turnaround time.

This has created a demand for a transformative restructuring in the manner brands function, manage and align themselves. They are turning their heads towards agile business transformation in order to better respond quickly to the growing shift in the marketplace.

According to a survey conducted by Forbes - Around 92% senior executives interviewed among 500 leaders stated they believe that organization agility is critical to business success.

The cornerstone of successful agile transformation includes - forming networks of teams, learning, building, developing and testing applications, creating roadmaps and aligning outcomes.

Let's take a deeper dive to explore 7 necessary steps for brands to become agile.

1. Getting Top Executives Aligned

Agile transformation initiatives will have an impact on the overall business performance and outlook. No transformation project can succeed without the support and inputs from the top brass. It is hence important to ensure that all executives are on board and are informed about the end objectives of the project so that broad scale organizational goals and strategies are aligned from inception.

2. Defining the End State Targets

Agile transformation involves large scale restructuring and to have a defined vision towards your end state goals attains greater importance. Contingent requirements, anomalies, change and adaptation all demands you to develop broad hypothesis for the process, structures, governance and associated metrics to be executed during the transformation phase. It will help you understand the underlying patterns for team formation and aligning your teams to do the required task.

3. Building a Roadmap

A roadmap is essential to guide the transformation effort helping teams to have a clear idea about the next actions and steps, the ways and means to get things done effectively, to meet the organization goals for agile transformation. It helps you specify what needs to be done, the time needed to make it happen and the expected benefits from the investment.

4. Maintaining a Rolling Plan & Conducting Checkpoints

A rolling plan helps leadership team to assess the future course of action and take necessary steps to move ahead, assess the progress and make prompt adjustment when needed. The rolling plan is akin to the Agile release plan and enumerates every detail related to the impact of project on various components and structures within the organization. Regular checkpoints need to be conducted to periodically assess the progress of transformation project and necessary adjustments.

5. Sustaining the Changes & Reassessment

At this juncture, organization starts developing a set of internal best practices as structures and metrics are strengthened and solidified. Teams start documenting sound practices and create project related collaterals like handouts, training materials, factsheets and develop strategies for assessment and improvements.

The team is required to ensure that the project is managed, and changes sustained. As the project continues to roll and new contingencies and challenges arise, the scope for improvement and new avenues for learning arises. At this stage, it is time stop, reflect and re-assess the project goals with a fresh understanding towards the transformation goals.

6. Connecting Outcomes

The primary aim to move towards agile transformation is to create better business outcomes. At this stage it is important to trace improvements in the system that offers quantifiable benefits and improvements to meet the crucial objective laid down by top leaders. The main goal is to ensure that all hypothesis generated, activities and experiments undertaken are tied to desired business goals and outcomes.

Managing Effective Communication

The success of the transformation project depends heavily on the way messages are communicated in a regular and transparent manner as top leadership can greatly help in facing challenges and impediments that inevitably comes across the transformation journey. This fosters the culture of collaboration leading to elevated energy levels and heightened motivation for a successful project execution and delivery.

Final Notes

Agile transformation will undoubtedly help your organization to be more responsive and will propel your ability to be highly productive and deliver to your customers’ expectations. Given all the steps to transformation, it becomes imperative for you to align your resources, manage time and a stringent commitment to pursue your goals.

As a leader in digital experience platform, Espire Infolabs has been seamlessly helping brands in their agile transformation efforts. Our approach involves - thorough evaluation of your IT ecosystem, assessment of your business needs, along with user interface (UI) & user experience (UX) requirements. Based on these specific business goals, we recommend a customized application development strategy resulting in the superior business outcomes.

For any query, quick demo & consultation get in touch with us at marketing@espire.com .