5ways to transform how an organisation works into the Agile model to cope with rapid changes in the business world and to be able to resolve any complications that may occur as the project evolves.
Many organisations in the business world today use this work model with many projects or even product development and new services. Agile is done is 5ways, which are dividing the work into several short cycles, using Task board, having a short meeting at the beginning of each day, reviewing and testing every job during the work cycle, and analyzing the past work process for improvements.
5 ways of how Agile works
Agile, as a work model, is done by a team combined from many different departments, instead of work being passed on from one department to the next. Agile focuses on interpersonal communication for better understanding, decision making and changing of the work method.
Agile way is to change from one long-term goal to short-term goals or what we called a “Sprint“. This is done in order to cope with rapid changes in the business world and to fix any problems that may occur.
This is the way most startup businesses work, which helps with the cost of change. The concept of “Fail fast, fail often” will make the organizations accepts mistakes so that they may be addressed and resolved promptly. The organization then learns from those mistakes, which leads to its quick adaptation to be able to respond to customers’ demands in terms of new products and services.
Agile is not only limited to startup businesses. In fact, many organizations in the business world today opt to use Agile when developing projects, products and service development. Agile consists of 5 ways of working, as follows:
1. Dividing the work into several short cycles (Sprint planning) so that the team can deliver some results during the project without having to have the finished product. The rest of the work will be gradually delivered over time. This serves the highly competitive business world because it responds to the frequent change of customers’ demands.
2. Using Taskboard (Print Execution) is the management of the work that shows the status of all tasks by putting them on the to-do list. These are then separated into doing and done so that all team members are constantly updated and can review the whole project.
3. Having a short meeting at the beginning of each day (Daily meeting) is meant to let every team member know what to do on that day. Any problems the team is facing or any help any team member may need can then be addressed. It also helps to motivate the team.
Alternatively, the team can have a “Standup Meeting” where everyone gets together for a short conversation without sitting down. This way the team avoids settling into comfortable sitting positions that may lead to a longer meeting with unnecessary conversations.
4. Reviewing and testing every job during the work cycle (Sprint Review) is intended to ensure that the team can finish the work as planned, and see the result of each work cycle. Any problems can then be resolved in a timely manner.
5. Analyzing the past work process for any improvement (Retrospective) is the step where all the team members get to review the past work process by pointing out what’s good, what should be continued and what problems need fixing. Also, the team can find a better way of working together or suggest any new ideas that they should try during the next work cycle.
