Enterprise-level practices can seem a little intimidating to smaller businesses, but they shouldn’t be!
After all, every business is an enterprise. And you can run alongside the big guys with the right mindset.
Especially as your business grows, you need to find ways to adapt and apply the same methodologies you have worked so hard to implement. So enterprise agile practices could be the key to seamless growth.
The agile enterprise is fast-moving, flexible, and robust - capable of rapid response to unexpected challenges, events, and opportunities.
The agile methodology is built on policies and processes that facilitate speed and change, with the aim of achieving continuous competitive advantage from the value it presents to the customer.
If your business has made it through the last couple of years, then chances are you’re adopting a little of the agile enterprise mindset already.
What are enterprise agile frameworks?
Agile methodologies like Scrum have been designed for small teams in small organizations. They aim to streamline processes and get the very best out of small teams by removing the bloat from project management.
Enterprise agile frameworks are mostly similar to regular agile frameworks. They aim to give teams the same benefits as regular agile practices, just on a much larger level.
How do you implement and deliver enterprise agile?
According to a 2020 McKinsey survey, 76% of enterprises see transforming culture and ways of working as the biggest challenge when it comes to workplace transformation.
To make it simple, enterprises need to keep track of the changes and adjust to find the right balance. Enter, agile practices.
For businesses already using agile methodologies, the transformation shouldn’t be too difficult. However, if your enterprise is new to agile, you’ll need to gradually introduce the practices and roll out the agile transformation step by step.
Let’s see what steps do enterprises need to take to become agile.
Establish a vision
Overhauling your practices is a big step to take. And you need to make sure you’re triggering such substantial changes for all the right reasons. “Everyone else is doing it” is unlikely to inspire company-wide support for your agile rollout, nor will it help you truly succeed.
The first step in the transformation process is to define why your business should change. This could be something as simple as needing to generate more revenue or a reduction in wasted money and resources.
Create knowledgeable, confident teams
Transformation requires regular check-ins and long-term changes, but the last thing you need to be doing is micromanaging every single team in the organization. The agile solution to this issue is to create empowered teams.
This is when agile coaching comes in handy. Throughout the agile transformation, some team members will struggle. Addressing any issues is crucial to making the transformation successful.
The aim here is to empower your teams with an agile mindset, a set of competencies, and techniques. This will help you to build self-sustaining teams that feel confident with agile practices and can handle their own business.
Use the right tools
Enterprise agility is a flexible practice that requires equally flexible tools.
Ideally, you will use a cross-team communication tool that also offers a range of project management solutions in one, easy to use, cloud-based platform (hey, that sounds familiar).
This will guarantee seamless data exchange and transparency, while offering the ability to immediately recover data in case of a mistake.
Start slow and introduce things little by little
Once you have the right tools and knowledge to help your teams successfully adapt, now it’s time to start rolling out new practices. It’s important to take your time with a substantial transformation like this, especially in the earlier stages.
Introduce hands-on governance, iterative approaches to project delivery, active communication with clients, and invest your efforts in building and maintaining this agile structure.
Accelerate
Once your teams are aligned with the new methodologies, it's time to move on to organizational change. This is a key step in making sure that the transformation sticks.
You’ll often have higher-ups and stakeholders that advocate for sticking with the status quo, and this is your chance to prove them wrong! To do so, you need to present cold, hard data that supports your call for change.
Make sure to keep track of key metrics throughout the team-level transformation process that can help during this phase.
Adapt
The business world is constantly changing. Customers come and go, trends change, and the market often ebbs and flows. Agile methodologies highlight further ways to change and improve your processes, so you can adapt as and when you need to.
Why enterprise agile teams fail (& how to make sure you don't!)
Not all enterprise agile transformations are successful.
Enterprise agile teams fail for a number of reasons including:
There's no clear vision for the product
Step one in our transformation is to define a clear vision. This should be the starting point for almost all of your processes, especially product development.
To realize the true value of any project - agile transformation included - you need to know why you’re doing it before you start.
The team doesn't take into consideration costs, benefits, and other important business metrics
Agile methodologies like to look at a product from the customer’s perspective. This can take the focus away from the basic issues surrounding product development, cost, resources, benefits to the business, and other key metrics.
It’s a common concern from senior management and stakeholders when it comes to agile transformation, so remember to keep one eye on your KPIs as you progress the project.
The workflow gets interrupted
Agile teaches us to roll with the punches and quickly adapt. Something as simple as customer feedback could be a signal to rethink the entire project.
It’s important to account for this in the planning stages of enterprise agile transformation, to avoid a pivot in strategy that leads to a total standstill. Make sure to allocate a good amount of time for unplanned work, just in case!
Not enough time
Following on from the previous point, teams need a manageable schedule to ensure that the product is being developed in a way that adds value.
Failing to offer your teams enough time to get the job done will mean that many are working on multiple tasks at the same time. This results in employee burnout, poor quality work, and ultimately, a failed product.
Benefits of enterprise agile for businesses
Enterprise agile methodologies offer many benefits for businesses in various industries - here are just a few.
Regular and predictable deliveries
Organizations can use agile methodologies to break down complex projects into smaller, manageable tasks. This enables teams to deliver incremental updates regularly, ensuring consistent progress and providing stakeholders predictable delivery timelines.
Better change management
No matter what industry you work in, change is inevitable. Enterprise agile allows businesses to adapt to these changes swiftly. Teams can easily incorporate new requirements or respond to market shifts, reducing the risk of project delays and improving overall efficiency.
Clearer schedules
Because agile breaks down tasks into smaller, manageable pieces, it becomes much easier to plan schedules. It also means your team knows what they should be working on, when it’s due, and how their work fits into the bigger picture.
Better stakeholder engagement
Agile methodologies encourage continuous collaboration and feedback from stakeholders throughout the development process. This fosters a sense of ownership and involvement, resulting in better-informed decisions and enhanced project outcomes.
Higher customer satisfaction
An iterative approach using agile methodologies strongly emphasizes delivering value to end users early and consistently. It embraces user feedback to ensure the final product meets their needs and expectations.
Better processes
As teams continuously evaluate and improve their work methods, agile promotes a culture of continuous improvement. Businesses can identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for growth, resulting in optimized processes and increased productivity.
Misconceptions about enterprise agile
When bringing up the topic of shifting to agile in enterprise settings you may hear some pushback. This is usually due to a misunderstanding about what agile actually is. Common misconceptions include:
“Agile is only for software development”
While agile has origins in software development, you can apply agile principles to enterprises in all industries. Agile methodologies aren’t tied to a specific industry.
“Agile is only for small businesses or startups“
Larger businesses often overlook agile methodologies because they don’t think it’s possible to be agile at an enterprise level. But organizations of all sizes can implement agile principles. In fact, enterprise-level businesses can benefit from agile as it allows them to stay relevant and adaptable in modern markets.
“Distributed teams can't be agile“
While having everyone in one location can help, remote, hybrid, and global teams can all implement enterprise agile. It’s not about where your team is - it’s about how your team works.
Scaling enterprise agile: challenges and methods, and frameworks
While agile can work in an enterprise setting, there’s no denying it can be difficult at first. There are a few challenges to overcome, including:
Managing culture changes
For agile to be effective, it needs to be implemented within the culture of your entire organization. Leaders need to truly understand what it means to work with agile. Team members need to know how their work will evolve. Education about agile needs to happen at an organizational level because changing one small team won’t give the business the full benefits of Agile.
Changing how work is managed
Change is required to make agile work at scale, but they don’t have to be big changes. You could start by adjusting budgeting practices so that they’re focused on value instead of being project-driven. It’s also good to change up your management style and embrace a more open leadership style.
Adapting tech stacks for enterprise agile
Embracing enterprise agile might mean adjusting or adapting your tech stack. For organizations with some agile teams, this might look like adopting tech solutions that can connect these teams and give greater transparency within your organization. No matter how you adjust your tech stack, ensure the tools you choose help you eliminate technology silos, encourage transparency and collaboration, and will scale with your enterprise’s growth.
We've compiled a list of 20 essential enterprise software for 2024, check it out.
Frameworks to scale enterprise agile
Thankfully, There are enterprise-specific frameworks to help organizations deploy agile at scale, including:
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Disciplined Agile (DA)
Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS)
Focus on the road(map) ahead with airfocus
Have you explored the range of modular functions and features available through airfocus?
If not, now’s the time - especially if you’re planning on adopting an enterprise agile mindset.
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Additional resources
Check our our extensive library of resources for enterprises and multi-product organizations. Here are some articles to read next
Enterprise-Grade Prioritization (With Strategies and Examples for Complex Product Portfolios)
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Effective Stakeholder Management in Enterprise Product Development
This article was last updated in July 2024.
Valentin Firak
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