How to Stay Agile

Michael Aucoin, D. Engr., PE, PMP is president of Leading Edge Management, LLC in College Station, Texas and author of Right-Brain Project Management: A Complementary Approach. He can be reached at [email protected].

  Agile  

How does one stay agile over time? It’s an important question to address for those of us who must deliver agile projects again and again, perhaps over years. I have observed that organizations tend to become less agile and more sluggish over time--unless they consciously and deliberately force themselves to keep and practice their agile chops. There are at least three reasons for this tendency toward sluggishness:

1. Bureaucracy: First, rules of behavior and oversight checks almost always increase in number in organizations. Generally, they are initiated with good intentions to correct mistakes or to satisfy a regulatory requirement. More oversight and paperwork are intended to prevent the repeat of a problem. It may or may not correct the problem, but bureaucracy will definitely slow the responsiveness and agility of teams.
2. Success: The second, and counter-intuitive, reason for lethargy is organizational success. That’s right…success plants the seeds for complacency, as well as a mindset of “Let’s keep doing what has worked.” This strategy might be appropriate for a static world; but technology, markets and customers change, and what worked last year may not work this year. We perceive that times are good (or good enough), and will stay that way. Thus, we take our eyes off growth and improvement.
3. Stress: The third …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.