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1 – 10 of over 3000With Agile’s success in accelerating software products and services that customers valued and with the increasing importance of software in general business strategy, business…
Abstract
Purpose
With Agile’s success in accelerating software products and services that customers valued and with the increasing importance of software in general business strategy, business leaders are increasingly turning to Agile for every aspect of their operations.
Design/methodology/approach
There are more than 70 different Agile practices. The author advises traditional managers on how to make sense of such a bewildering assortment of ideas.
Findings
His research found thatrganizations that have embraced Agile practice three core principles–The Law of the Small Team; The Law of the Customer; The Law of the Network.
Practical implications
The first and almost universal characteristic of Agile organizations is that practitioners share a mindset that work should be done in small autonomous cross-functional teams working in short cycles on relatively small tasks that deliver value to customers and getting continuous feedback from the ultimate customers or end users.
Originality/value
As a network, the organization becomes a growing, learning, adapting organism that is in constant flux to exploit new opportunities and add new value for customers. The future of Agile is ultimately about implementing the third principle: the whole organization operating as an interactive network. In the rapidly evolving “Connected Economy” the power of the network is increasing geometrically.
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Teemu Lappi and Kirsi Aaltonen
Agile methodologies are widely used to manage the technical complexity of software development, and project governance can provide feasible means of organizational support for…
Abstract
Purpose
Agile methodologies are widely used to manage the technical complexity of software development, and project governance can provide feasible means of organizational support for complex project success. The purpose of this paper is to: analyze the project governance practices of public sector organizations, illustrate what kind of impact these practices have on agile software projects and describe the tensions of agile project governance.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on qualitative research strategy and applies elaborative logic with analyses of three case projects in the Finnish public sector.
Findings
The findings of the research describe how project governance practices can be categorized into six dimensions: business case, contracting, controlling, steering, decision-making and capability building. The results illustrate how these practices either support or detract the performance of agile projects. The results also show that there are two interfaces to agile project that create most tensions to governance – the public sector and technology.
Originality/value
The study contributes to both project management and information and communication technology theories by combining technical aspects of agile methodologies with micro-level project governance practices. The study also adds original value to academics by introducing the new concept of “agile project governance.” The results of this study will allow public sector project organizations to design appropriate governance mechanisms for agile projects, and to identify the challenges and tensions that need to be considered and managed in the process.
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While the principles of Agile management are simple, the implementation of the actual “Laws of Agile” is daunting to managers trained in the traditions and culture of hierarchical…
Abstract
Purpose
While the principles of Agile management are simple, the implementation of the actual “Laws of Agile” is daunting to managers trained in the traditions and culture of hierarchical management. This article offers a context for the three laws.
Design/methodology/approach
Implementing Agile requires fostering a mindset that is fundamentally different from traditional preoccupations with profit maximization and hierarchical authority.
Findings
Agile is about generating instant, intimate, frictionless, low-risk, incremental value at scale. That’s the new performance requirement.
Practical implications
A growing number of companies, including those that have embraced the Agile mindset, believe the true purpose of a firm is to create customers and establish a sustainable relationship with them.
Originality/value
For leaders and managers this article offers radical insights. In an Agile organization, talent discovers strategic opportunities. Talent drives strategy. When the whole organization truly embraces Agile, instead of a steady state machine, the organization becomes an organic living network of high-performance teams. 10;
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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…
Abstract
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.
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The article offers a clear and succinct account of the Amazon approach to Agile management (though it doesn’t call it that, and offers best practices to enable others to learn how…
Abstract
Purpose
The article offers a clear and succinct account of the Amazon approach to Agile management (though it doesn’t call it that, and offers best practices to enable others to learn how to think–and act–like Amazon.
Design/methodology/approach
The article draws on the insights and experiences of John Rossman an Amazon senior manager who was an effective innovator for the company.
Findings
Amazon has a distinctive approach to implementing the three principles of Agile: 10;∙9; Customer-obsessed. 10;∙9; Small is beautiful. 10;∙9; Networks.
Practical implications
Customer obsession at Amazon is enabled and driven by customer-driven metrics.
Originality/value
Drawing on his experience innovating for the company, John Rossman describes in detail how Amazon created an environment with very different values and behaviors, an approach that employs the principles of Agile management.
Javad Tayebi, Chao Han and Yuanjin Yu
The purpose of this paper is agile attitude control design with the novel three-dimensional (3D) magnetically suspended wheel (MSW) that is the preferred type for agile…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is agile attitude control design with the novel three-dimensional (3D) magnetically suspended wheel (MSW) that is the preferred type for agile maneuvering compared to conventional control moment gyro due to frictionless, low vibration and long lifetime. This system does not require a separate steering law for pyramid arrangement to derive tilt angles. It is also conducting an agile maneuver with high accuracy despite the high-frequency disturbances.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, a disturbance observer-based attitude stabilization method is proposed for an agile satellite with a pyramid cluster of the novel 3D magnetically suspended wheel actuator. This strategy includes a disturbance observer and a linear quadratic regulator controller. The rotor shaft deflection of MSW is actively controlled to reduce vibration and producing gyro torque. The deflection angle of the pyramid cluster MSWs considered as control parameters. The closed-loop stability is proved by using the Lyapunov strategy. The efficiency and performance of the offered method verified by numerical simulation via MATLAB/SIMULINK software.
Findings
According to simulation results, the disturbance observer-based control controller stabilized the system with high accuracy and optimal tilt angles without any extra steering law equation. Hence, the system speed is increased, and the system error is minimized without separate steering law.
Practical implications
The magnetically suspended wheel is a new kind of inertia actuator for attitude control that has several benefits such as frictionless, high-speed rotor, clean environment and low vibration compared to the traditional wheel. It has complex nonlinear dynamics that cause have complicated controller design. The proposed strategy stabilizes the system and conducting an agile maneuver with high precision despite the high-frequency disturbances. It is applicable for some missions requiring high accuracies, like Earth observation and the solar observation mission that require a very accurate pointing control and a long lifetime.
Originality/value
This paper is the initial paper to design a pyramid array for magnetically suspended wheels. Compared to other research, this method doesn’t need a separate steering law of the MSWs cluster and presented optimal tilt angles with less computational. Also, it designs a disturbance observer-based controller for this system that proposed high accuracy and agile stabilization.
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Soon leaders in many top-down managed organization may face the necessity of undertaking a company-wide Agile transformation.First adopted by digital innovation teams, the Agile…
Abstract
Purpose
Soon leaders in many top-down managed organization may face the necessity of undertaking a company-wide Agile transformation.First adopted by digital innovation teams, the Agile mindset is spreading to middle management operations and top level leadership initiatives in many established organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
A guide to the ten stages of implementing an Agile mindset and practices through out an organization are detailed.
Findings
For traditionally managed hierarchical organizations, the transformation will include radical shifts in power, attitudes, values, mindsets, ways of thinking and ways of interacting with stakeholders—customers, employee talent, shareholders and partners. The goal is to enable the organization to generate instant, frictionless, intimate, incremental, risk-free value at scale, and to gain the financial rewards that flow from that capability.In the race for such outcomes, rigidly hierarchical firms are at a disadvantage.
Practical implications
The idea of Agile itself will continue to evolve as it is adapted by the organization. The process is not a matter of crafting a plan and then rolling it out across the organization. It’s not a mechanical eight-step program. It requires continuously adapting the idea to the circumstances of the organization. As the organization and everyone in it adapts the Agile approach to their own context, each individual needs to own it.
Originality/value
This map of the Agile implementation process enables top management and Agile champions to envision how to prepare an organization to change to a customer-focused, business that operates with Strategic Agility.
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While some large organizations are preoccupied with mastering operational Agility as a way to upgrade existing products and services, they and the wider management community need…
Abstract
Purpose
While some large organizations are preoccupied with mastering operational Agility as a way to upgrade existing products and services, they and the wider management community need to realize that the main financial benefits from Agile management will flow from the next frontier: achieving Strategic Agility, a market-making approach to innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The author proposes that firms adopt Agile management as a way to promote market-creating innovations through a process of imagining and delivering something that unexpectedly delights whole new groups of customers, once they realize the possibilities.
Findings
The potential of the Agile approach to innovation is that it can revitalize mature companies by discovering new customer experiences and create products and services that fulfill unmet needs.
Practical implications
This article shows how Agile management and strategic management concepts like “Jobs to be done” theory and “Blue Ocean” strategy can merge to promote market-creating innovation.
Originality/value
Given that industry borders are dissolving and competition is more dynamic than ever, the need for Strategic Agility – speedy, customer focused innovation that aims to make markets–is becoming increasingly obvious. This confluence of Agile and strategic management is a new and exciting approach to innovation.
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Agile manufacturing is a new and revolutionary way of manufacturing and assembling products. It is the next logical step in the evolutionary chain of manufacturing technologies…
Abstract
Agile manufacturing is a new and revolutionary way of manufacturing and assembling products. It is the next logical step in the evolutionary chain of manufacturing technologies, following on the heels of its predecessors, craft production, mass production, and lean production. This paper explains what agile manufacturing is, and what needs to be done to successfully pave the way for its implementation. Successful implementation requires changes in five areas: government regulation, business cooperation, information technology, reengineering, and employee flexibility. The potential benefits of successfully implementing agile manufacturing are much too great for an organization to overlook, as are the potential consequences of failing to implement it. Though many organizations have made strides toward implementing agile manufacturing, there is much work that needs to be done. Corporations need the backing of strong infrastructure to make agile manufacturing successful. This will require cooperation between government and business.
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Jan Pries-Heje and Richard Baskerville
The purpose of this paper is to use translation theory to develop a framework (called FTRA) that explains how companies adopt agile methods in a discourse of fragmentation and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use translation theory to develop a framework (called FTRA) that explains how companies adopt agile methods in a discourse of fragmentation and articulation.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative multiple case study of six firms using the Scrum agile methodology. Data were collected using mixed methods and analyzed using three progressive coding cycles and analytic induction.
Findings
In practice, people translate agile methods for local settings by choosing fragments of the method and continuously re-articulating them according to the exact needs of the time and place. The authors coded the fragments as technological rules that share relationships within a framework spanning two dimensions: static-dynamic and actor-artifact.
Research limitations/implications
For consistency, the six cases intentionally represent one instance of agile methodology (Scrum). This limits the confidence that the framework is suitable for other kinds of methodologies.
Practical implications
The FTRA framework and the technological rules are promising for use in practice as a prescriptive or even normative frame for governing methodology adaptation.
Social implications
Framing agile adaption with translation theory surfaces how the discourse between translocal (global) and local practice yields the social construction of agile methods. This result contrasts the more functionalist engineering perspective and privileges changeability over performance.
Originality/value
The use of translation theory and the FTRA framework to explain how agile adaptation (in particular Scrum) emerges continuously in a process where method fragments are articulated and re-articulated to momentarily suit the local setting. Complete agility that rapidly and elegantly changes its own environment must, as a concomitant, rapidly and elegantly change itself. This understanding also elaborates translation theory by explaining how the articulation and re-articulation of ideas embody the means by which ideas travel in practice.
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