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Because too many firms are stuck on the treadmill of producing quarterly returns, often to be achieved through financial engineering, a new management mindset is needed set them to exploring new opportunities through innovation.

A new kind of management is emerging–called the Agile model– in which firms emphasize searching out opportunities, finding solutions through rapid experimentation, and achieving agility through decisiveness.

In organizations that have implemented the Agile model Agile, the distinction between exploration and exploitation tends to blur and even dissolve. Those involved in exploitation are also continuously looking for ways to improve performance. Those involved in exploration and development are continuously seeking ways to deliver value to customers sooner

Agile managements are learning to shift from scalable efficiency to scalable learning, where everyone is driven by the need to learn faster and accelerate performance improvement

This overview of how explains how all members of a organization–from the CEO to the front-line worker–will need to be involved in the implementation of the Agile model.

This paper aims to examine the key challenges experienced and lessons learned when organizations undergo large-scale agile transformations and seeks to answer the question of how incumbent firms achieve agility at scale.

Building on a case study of a multinational corporation seeking to scale up agility, the authors combined 36 semistructured interviews with secondary data from the organization to analyze its transformation since the early planning period.

The results show how incumbent firms develop and successfully integrate agility-enhancing capabilities to sense, seize and transform in times of digital transformation and rapid change. The findings highlight how agility can be established initially at the divisional level, namely with a key accelerator in the form of a center of competence, and later prepared to be scaled up across the organization. Moreover, the authors abstract and organize the findings according to the dynamic capabilities framework and offer propositions of how companies can achieve organizational agility by scaling up agility from a divisional to an organizational level.

Along with in-depth insights into agile transformations, this article provides practitioners with guidance for developing agility-enhancing capabilities within incumbent organizations and creating, scaling and managing agility across them.

Examining the case of a multinational corporation's exceptional, pioneering effort to scale agility, this article addresses the strategic importance of agility and explains how organizational agility can serve incumbent firms in industries characterized by uncertainty and intense competition.

The objective of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of Global Services businesses that will thrive and achieve success in the future. These factors are integrated into three main pillars, which we refer to as the Triple-Win. The first and most obvious pillar is technology as a tool. The second pillar is the design and sustainability of the business model, without which the previous factor would be merely a cost and not an investment. And last but not the least, there is the purpose which gives meaning to the proposal, focusing on the human being and their environment. The DIDPAGA business model sits at the intersection of these three elements.

This study seeks to illuminate the managerial tensions inherent in implementing scaled agile (on the organizational, top management, middle management and team levels) and to frame these challenges within the broader context of project management.

The study adopts a grounded theory approach and delves into a qualitative dataset sourced from 34 interviews with subject matter experts actively engaged in scaling agile initiatives within large organizations spanning various industries. Additionally, the data have been enriched through a comprehensive literature review of the existing body of knowledge on scaling agile.

As a result of our investigation, we propose a framework of managerial tensions in scaling agile in large corporate settings and a series of research propositions and questions that may contribute significantly to the body of knowledge surrounding the phenomenon of “deprojectification” and propose agenda for the future studies in the field of project management.

The study also carries significant managerial implications. Firstly, based on the insights from the practice of scaling agile in large corporate setting, management can build awareness of the challenges inherent of transitioning to agile practices. This may help to anticipate the possible problems and proactively develop strategies how to address them. Secondly, management can be instructed about contingencies inherent in scaling agile, along with the potential disfunctions and side effects (unintended outcomes) that may emerge during the transition process. Thirdly, project management practitioners can gain insights on how scaling agile may cause shifts in the approach to managing projects, project team management and competencies that need to be developed to cope with environments where various approaches to managing projects coexist.

These insights can aid in the agile transition process, beginning with directing managerial attention toward contextual factors and progressing through potential challenges at the organizational, top management, middle management and team levels. Furthermore, the study highlights possible dysfunctionalities and side effects of scaling agile, shedding light on the “dark side” of agile.

The study contributes to the expansion of the empirical database on the implementation of agile practices in large organizational settings. It plays a role in defining and delineating the phenomenon of scaling agile within the context of project management and outlines a research agenda for future project management studies. Additionally, our study adds to the ongoing discourse surrounding the “deprojectification” effect that can occur during the scaling of agile. Lastly, it establishes connections between project management and software development literature regarding the implementation of agile at scale.

This study aims to examine the enablers of productivity of enterprise-level Agile development process using modified total interpretative structural modeling (TISM). The two main objectives of the current study are to determine the variables influencing enterprise-level agile development productivity and to develop modified TISM for the corresponding components.

To identify enablers of the productivity of enterprise-level agile software development process a literature review and opinions of domain experts were collected. A hierarchical relationship among variables that show direct and indirect influence is created using the modified TISM (M-TISM) technique with Cross Impact Matrix-Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis. This study examined and analyzed the relationships between the determinants within the enterprise using a M-TISM technique.

With the literature review, the study could identify ten enabling factors of the productivity of Agile development process at the enterprise level. Results depict that program increment (PI) planning and scalable backlog management, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), agile release trains (ART), agile work culture, delivery excellence, lean and DevOps practices, value stream mapping (VMS), team skills and expertise, collaborative culture, agile coaching, customer engagement have an impact on the productivity of enterprise-level Agile development process. The results show that team collaboration, agile ways of working and customer engagement have a greater impact on productivity improvement for enterprise-level Agile development process.

The developed model is useful for organizations employing scaled Agile development processes in software development. This study provides a recommended listing of key enablers, that may enable productivity improvements in the Agile development process at the enterprise level. Strategists should focus on team collaboration and Agile project management. This study offers a modified TISM model to academicians to help them understand the effects of numerous variables on maintaining the productivity of an enterprise-level Agile. The identified characteristics and their hierarchical structure can help project managers during the execution of Agile projects at the enterprise level, more effectively, increasing their success and productivity.

The study addresses the gap in the literature by interpretative relationships between the identified enabling factors. The model validation is carried out by a panel of nine experts from several information technology organizations deploying Agile software development at the enterprise level. This unique method broadens the knowledge base in Agile software development at scale and provides project managers and practitioners with a practical foundation.

Agile is the umbrella term for a family of management practices, which include Scrum, Kanban, and Lean. To investigate Agile management as it was being practiced in large firms, in 2015 Scrum Alliance, whose mission is “to transform the world of work,” launched a Learning Consortium for the Creative Economy (LC), composed of a group of firms that included Microsoft, Ericsson, Magna International, Riot Games and others.

The group conducted site visits to learn from each other’s experiences with Agile. The questions to be explored included: To what extent are Agile management practices in fact occurring at scale in old and new firms? How effective are these management practices? Is it possible for the whole firm, particularly older firms with entrenched bureaucratic cultures, to become Agile?

The LC found that Agile management is already taking hold in large-scale implementations in both new and old firms. The LC observed that some firms were implementing Agile for large-scale, complex business challenges in areas beyond software, including operations where reliability is an issue.

Agile was seen as a different way of understanding and acting in the world. The successful firms were “being Agile,” not merely “doing Agile” within their existing management framework.

In the world of Agile management, delivering value to customers is the goal of every individual in the organization. Profits are seen as the result, not the goal. The Learning consortium sites visit offer managers an opportunity to study this philosophy in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze in a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms the relationship between agile manufacturing and the firm’s management capacities related to innovation and production flexibility. Complementarily the survey addresses the implementation of agile production and its measurement.

For data collection, a survey through mail to operations and human resource managers of manufacturing firms and telephonic interviews with managers from 25 selective firms was carried out. The population of the study included firms from the Sistema de Análisis de Balances Ibéricos database with NACE codes 24–32 and at least 200 employees. Quantitative methods (linear hierarchical regression and mean differences) were used to test research hypotheses, and a qualitative method (interview analysis) was used to analyze an implementation and measurement model of agile production.

The results of the study show that high-agile firms use more intensively a comprehensive set of agile facilitators (design, manufacturing and supply). They also innovate and cooperate externally more on innovation than low-agile firms. The authors have found that external technological cooperation moderates the firm’s production flexibility.

The implications of this research indicate, on one hand, that firms interested in implementing agile production should focus on the agility management of supply chains, the skills and knowledge development of human resources and in the implementation of agile manufacturing technologies. On the other hand, firms in less cooperative environments should focus more on their internal manufacturing systems to reinforce the relationship between production flexibility and agility that offers broader scenarios to compete under this production paradigm. The main limitations of the research design are the use of cross-sectional data and the use of managerial perceptions to assess most of the variables.

This paper offers a model of agile production implementation that it is complemented with measurement indicators to analyze the firm’s evolution toward agility. The combination of multivariate analysis and managers’ interviews to obtain and validate results creates a value for managers interested in agile production.

By learning how to overcome implementation challenges, the Agile methodology can enable organizations to cope with the 21st Century marketplace and deliver what customers expect and demand: easy, quick, convenient, personalized responsiveness at scale.”

The 10 major implementation challenges are addressed.

Agile offers a methodology that can improve the chances of building a new product or service that people will actually buy, use and like.

A key Agile principle – doing work in small iterative cycles with customer feedback at the end of each cycle – is a transformative idea.

The author has recently made on-site visits to leading corporations that have adopted Agile. The “Agile” managers he met recognize that the future of their firm depends on inspiring those doing the work to accelerate innovation and add genuine value to customer, that enhancing that capacity depends on giving autonomy to self-organizing teams within broad parameters of control.

The purpose of t1his paper is to develop an instrument to measure agile services based on dynamic capabilities theory. The paper investigates the service agility through two building blocks service sensing and seizing agility and service responding agility.

The items were generated using existing scales, content analysis and using in-depth interview. The scale was validated using data from Indian services industry.

A pool of 32 items for dynamic service capabilities enabling agile services and 12 items for agile services were proposed. Empirical validation shows that the scale exhibits high levels of reliability.

The new concept of agile services has been introduced, which is of recent interest to both practitioners and academicians alike. The limitations of the study include a low respondent rate.

Organizations need measure the degree of agile services and different capabilities this can facilitate agile services. This scale can act as a foundation for organizations to evaluate their capabilities. This scale will act as a tool for top managers to assess their capabilities and suitably improve the capabilities of their services.

The capabilities enabling agile services are based on the dynamic capabilities framework and a new construct (agile services) is being proposed. This scale will be a theoretical contribution to this literature.

Achieving continuous innovation performance still poses a major challenge to established companies as it requires high flexibility and adaptability in usually efficiently structured organisations. One way to tackle this challenge lies in establishing effective behaviours to successfully establish and apply innovation leadership mechanisms in an organisation. The emerging agile leadership style could provide such effective behaviours, as it addresses the demand for flexibility and adaptability on the organisational level. Despite these clear parallels research on the link between agile leadership and innovation leadership, and their possible combined contribution to drive continuous innovation performance is still in its infancy. Accordingly, the present study examines the behaviours of agile leaders to promote continuous innovation in established companies. It applies a discovery-driven research process of agile leaders to derive and categorise their behaviours. The subsequent comparison of the identified agile leadership behaviours with innovation leadership mechanisms from existing literature leads to eight specific, combined agile leadership principles within the three categories empowerment, performance enhancement, and support for continuous innovation. Eventually, this basis allows the conceptualisation of a first exploratory framework with the identified behaviours as possible enablers, and innovation leadership mechanisms as possible mediators for the continuous innovation performance, subject to test. These findings enhance existing theory by clarifying a possible link between agile leadership and continuous innovation. That way, practitioners can profit from concrete principles for agile leaders to inspire and enable continuous innovation in individuals and teams.