Did We Buy or Just Lease the Agile Car?

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It is no secret that more and more companies are adopting Agile. The challenge is that many of them treat it like buying or leasing a car. They take the Agile car for a test drive, like how it handles and then make the purchase/lease without considering the total price of the vehicle over the lifetime of the investment.

When the Agile car is only leased, it is a business liability that has a planned obsolescence. The company throws money at a short-term problem that they will plan to replace with whatever the next model will be once the lease runs out. Maintenance and care will be invested at only at the level that meets the lease agreement. This short-term approach prevents the cultural all-in strategy that Enterprise Agile requires.

If the Agile car is bought, it becomes a capital asset. It can depreciate depending on what make and model is purchased or it can become a long-term asset that increases in value. Maintenance is included as part of the expense of ownership and is based off of the planned longevity of the asset. Corporate culture is modeled to embrace Agile as a core decision-making tenant, not just for development purposes but across the Enterprise.

Matt Anderson will discuss the common challenges that a sustained enterprise agile adoption will encounter over time and ways to overcome them to ensure the corporate Agile car stays in top condition and is an asset and competitive advantage to the company.

Based on lessons learned at Cerner Corporation, Matt will discuss how to handle sustained enterprise challenges like:

1) Re-organizations
2) Annual Planning
3) C-Suite prioritization shifts
4) Team changes
5) Burn-out and Cargo Cults
6) Suboptimization within organizations that decreases enterprise throughput
7) Leadership power struggles
8) Mergers and Acquisitions

While Kaizen is the desired maintenance approach, Kaikaku “accidents” happen that require some major repairs or restoration. Enterprise Agile has to handle both smoothly to truly be an competitive advantage. This has to be a core competency within the organization, independent of reliance on external consultants.