On the Cusp of Agile Governance

Agile is here and has been here since the end of the dot-com bust in 2001. It is touted as a competitive advantage and culture-changing. All organisations are on the Agile-implementation spectrum—somewhere between “heard of it” and being an Agile enterprise. It could be a “buzz” word people use for political gain or it could be the core way your people work together. The common question for all organisations: “is this right for us?”

If you say, “yes,” then how are you going to implement it? Getting lots of people certified in Scrum or Lean is a common starting point. After that, some projects will succeed while using Agile and momentum could grow. If successful, then all business owners will demand that their projects be Agile. At this point, your organisation has a twofold problem: 1) shortfall in people who can run and spread Agile-based delivery and 2) no means to govern Agile projects, which can follow many different, non-traditional delivery paths. The shortfall in Agile people is usually solved through either hiring or deciding only limited projects “get to use” an Agile approach. The governance is a bigger challenge—dealing with your organisation’s culture.

My company, an $8B retailer, first considered Agile in 2010, didn’t act on it or train people until 2016, and had its first “Agile” success in 2017. That first “Agile” project followed about three of the twelve Agile principles and called every major work effort a “sprint.” This is what launched Agile at my company and drove multiple other projects to be approved for “Agile.” Most have succeeded and momentum is growing, but problem 2) lack of governance, became prominent as project sponsors wanted speed, company focus, and funding, with little oversight.

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