THE AGILE METHODOLOGY
In today’s mission driven environment, organizations are faced with increased scrutiny, tighter budgets, stricter deadlines and escalating regulatory demands. IT leaders are under constant pressure to prove their value to the business, defend their budgets, reduce their growing backlog of projects, and deliver greater transparency to the enterprise.
Ulu HI-Tech Agile enterprise solutions give users the ability to see Agile, and more traditional Waterfall projects, in the same context. Whether new to Agile or established users of the methodology, whether using Agile enterprise-wide or in only in certain circumstances, Ulu HI-Tech can support requirements and scale accordingly – building on existing assets and technologies.
Agile encourages collaboration, and provides the ability to create separate user roles with supporting software features for all participants:
Product Owners
Document the product vision, develop user interfaces and prioritize features.
Customers
Provide input and help define requirements.
Developers
Make testing notes and report efforts for costing purposes.
SCRUM Masters and Development Managers
Populate backlog, create subtasks, update information and add developers.
Resource Managers
Optimize resource utilization across multiple projects and ensure resource availability.
ADAPT TO CHANGE, AND CHANGE ACTION PLAN
One of the keys to successful Agile planning is the ability to easily modify plans in order to adapt to change. Web-based interfaces allow product owners and SCRUM masters to quickly: populate portlets with information and assign themselves as resources; make testing notes for viewing and editing by all team members; and track all ongoing changes throughout the lifecycle, and across the enterprise. But, before anything will actually flow through the organization, there has to be a Change Action Plan that:
- Identifying and discussing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
- Putting together a group with enough power to lead the change.
- Getting the group to work together as a team, and discussing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
- Hiring, promoting and developing people who can implement the change vision.
- Reinvigorating the cultural renewal with new projects, themes and change agents.
- Creating a vision to help direct the change effort.
- Developing strategies for that vision.
- Using every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the new vision and strategy.
- Having the guiding coalition role model the behavior expected of employees and team members.
- Getting rid of obstacles
- Changing policies, procedures and structures that undermine the change vision.
- Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities and actions.
- Using every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the new vision and strategy.
- Planning for visible improvements in performance or “wins”.
- Creating those wins.
- Visibly recognizing and rewarding people who make wins possible.
- Using increased credibility to change all policies and structures that don’t fit the transformation vision.
- Creating better performance through customer and product oriented behavior; more and better leadership; and more effective management.
- Articulating the connections between new behaviors and original success.
- Developing means to ensure leadership and succession.
