What is Agile at Scale?

Experiencing the Agile's success in information technology and its growing importance throughout the business at large, most of the companies started asking whether the method's practices and philosophies can be scaled up to apply with same success to other projects as well.

Large-scale Agile means developing and delivering enterprise-level systems and software with the involvement of many teams.However,Agile scaling means different things to different organizations, includes taking Agile practices to different departments across the enterprise.

Agile Product development would start at team level.However,in order to create a holistic Agile Organization, mindsets of lean Agile, principles, values and practices should be applied beyond the teams.

Principles of Agile at scale

Below are the list of most important principles of agile at scale and those are -

• Understanding the positive constraint is the only constant.
• Connect vision to work
• Value product backlog management.
• Pull, do not push, work
• Make budget more flexible
• Focus on business outcomes
• Do not overlook tooling

Process of Agile at Scale

1. Learn the Agile Language - Scrums, Sprints, and stand-ups.
2. Create the right work environment - modular, furniture, white board wall.
3. Prepare to fail.
4. Being sure of the fiction points – adopting agile would mean giving up some control.
5. Rack up early wins – success with Agile elsewhere would bring others on board.
6. Go all in - but be sure that your employees would expect the shift.

Scaling in Agile

Agile scaling has two dimensions and those are -

1. At a portfolio level.
2. At the enterprise level.

Challenges faced during Agile scaling process

Below are the frequently facing challenges in agile scaling process and those are -

1. Culture and mindset are the biggest blockers in agile.
2. The technical side of transformation is not progressing at a desired speed, flexibility, limiting autonomy and productivity gains of delivery teams.
3. Business objectives are not fully aligned with an intent of transformation.
4. Senior leadership would expect traditional ways of risk management and reporting.
5. Early productivity gains would not be sustained or replicated throughout the organization.