Agile Isn’t Enough

Posted by Robert Merrill on June 20, 2009 under Agile Methods, Software-Intensive Businesses | Be the First to Comment

From the CUES Skybox, I read,

In 2009, marketing and technology are inseparable; however, within today’s credit union org chart, marketing and technology are completely separate.

This isn’t just true of credit unions, and it isn’t just true of marketing. In today’s increasingly software-intensive businesses in many industries, business and technology are inseparable. But the org chart seldom reflects it yet.

The IT group can only go so far on its own. Even in a software-intensive business, the software activities are only a part of the value stream from customer need expressed to customer need fulfilled. From an interview with Robin Dymond of Innovel on InfoQ, I hear,

I believe that, for Agile to be successful in most organizations there needs to be a change in the organizational structure.

The techies developing the software can adopt Scrum, or XP or any other Agile method, and realize some project-level benefits. But unless the whole organization changes too, the IT changes may not last, and the business as a whole will leave most of the potential benefits on the table. Dymond sees strong parallels with the Lean movement in manufacturing. Is it confined to the factory floor (GM), or is it allowed to shape the whole organization (Toyota)?

Lean is now fifty years old, and we’re seeing how the manufacturing story is ending.

Are similar futures in store for those software-intensive businesses that “get it,” and those that don’t?

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.