Scaling Agile Challenges And How To Overcome Them

 

Agile methods are an iterative approach for managing the development process of software products. These have seen a rise in popularity because they are seen as more flexible, adaptive, and responsive to change. It focuses on delivering working products quickly and following up with feedback to improve the product. They use short development cycles with rapid feedback loops to produce software systems that are functional, usable and have minimal errors.

So, most of the leading organizations are showing interest in adopting agile methods. Agile gains popularity and so scaling agile also gets more demand among them. But Scaling agile can be a challenge because an organization may have to reorganize the whole process. They may need to find a way to set up a new flow of work and rethink how people work together. Scaling agile is possible, but it needs a lot of commitment from everyone involved in the process.

Let us see the challenges faced by an enterprise when moving into scaling agile and how to mitigate them.

What Scaling Agile Means?

Scaling agile is an approach for scaling agile practices on large projects and teams. With this framework, you can create an environment of collaboration and innovation across all disciplines and skillsets, with a focus on customer feedback and the ability to release early and often. More scaling agile frameworks are available: Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), LeSS, SoS, DAD.

SAFe is the most popular one in the industry now. Scaled Agilist Certification is the 2-day foundational course for the professionals on the framework.

Scaling Agile: Challenges

1.      Culture Shift: Many organizations are still viable to the traditional methods. When moving to an agile approach, they need to adapt their mindset and environment for a new culture. And needs complete commitment from everyone in the enterprise. It takes some time but with proper learning, one can adapt to changes.

2.      Lack Of Understanding On The Scaling Agile Framework: If the enterprise leaders and team members are not having proper knowledge of what agile is, then it would be difficult for them while scaling agile. To understand the framework, check the details about SAFe training.

3.      Forming New Mindset: Scaling agile frameworks and practices requires adopting a proper mindset when people enhance the agile concepts.

4.      Not Having Right Tools: To stay competitive in this changing market, the enterprise should use the right tools, but it takes some time to choose the right one and adjust for them.

5.      Lack Of Team Governance: Leaders should teach the team to know their importance in their work and allow them for self-governance. The team should get the freedom to make their own decisions in work without waiting for top management for decision-making.

6.      Lack Of Coordination Among Large Teams: Collaboration and coordination seem to be difficult when scaling agile in larger teams. This is due to a lack of agile knowledge among team members and a poor attitude.

Ways To Overcome The Scaling Agile Challenges

·       To avoid the challenge of a lack of Agile knowledge, it's best to hire a good agile coach with in-depth knowledge and experience in agile to teach and train people how agile works. SAFe training helps to learn more about the framework.

·       Teams and top management need to have confidence that scaling Agile will benefit them. Be reminded of it through workshops, or face-to-face meetings.

·       Team members must be free from the control of senior management. They should be able to think and make good decisions without top management intervention. Team autonomy contributes to fewer changes and a high level of creativity, better performance, and innovation.

·       To support teams and help them collaborate well, management must be confident, collaborate effectively, and be transparent with their teams. To become an effective enterprise leader, consider getting Leading SAFe Certification.

Conclusion

The agile approach is a popular and effective way for organizations to execute new product development initiatives. It relies on the active involvement of all departments in the design, development, testing, and release of new innovative products.

There are many challenges that can arise when scaling Agile from a small team to a larger organization, but these challenges can be overcome with the right tools, processes, learning, and culture. To gain knowledge on scaling agile framework, individuals prefer to go for SAFe training courses.

It is helpful to organizational leaders for understanding the framework and can involve in the effective implementation by getting ‘Leading SAFe Certification’.