Agile software development hit hard in 2011, lots of clients starting out with it, and lots of buzz in the marketplace. More than ever, the quest for more effectiveness, faster time to market, and finding the way to the customers heart is in full swing.

With markets rapidly moving from inside-out to outside-in, with the customer controlling the conversation, and a wealth of choice available to them,  the challenges are huge. It is a buyers market by definition in todays information age.

What we need to realize though, agile software development is really not about software development. It doesn’t tell you how to test, it doesn’t tell you how to write down requirements, it doesn’t tell you how to design, it doesn’t tell you how to develop. Off course, there are engineering practices that fit real well with agile, but that is not what it is about. You could be doing Scrum, writing SMART usecases, using continuous integration, writing automated tests, and not be agile at all.

  Agile is a perfect first seed for a new way of looking at organizations and the way they could operate. Agile software development is all about respecting people, and providing  them the environment in which they can achieve extra-ordinary results. It is about trusting people, and tapping into the things that make them tick. It is about embracing change, and allowing self-organisation to come up with the best way to deal with it. It is about collaborating focused on business value.  It is about delighting the customer, not just satisfying the customer.

This goes way beyond the development people in the IT department, it impacts every aspect of the businesses that try it. Getting all the advantages from agile software development requires continuous organizational transformation and improvement. There is no end-state or agile Walhalla. Trying to be agile is being agile. You either go forward or backward.

Acknowledging the mindset and principles of agile means letting go of command and control management style. It means letting go of predictive management, where budgets and scope are limiting future outcomes. It is all about creating an environment and a compelling vision, within which not only anticipation, but adaptation and exploration can thrive as well.

Now what does this require?

Honesty

Agile is all about inspect and adapt. The only way to do this is to be real about what is. Radical transparency is called for, to be able to adapt in the correct way

Boldness

Being agile requires being bold. It is about acknowledging there is a better way to deliver, focusing on value. You will often be shouting in the desert.

Trust

Trust is one of the most important things in agile software development. Trust the people that they are capable of doing their job, trust that teams will self-organize to achieve high performance, trust that agile software development is a better way to deliver value.

Freedom

Freedom breeds creativity, innovation, diversity. Essential for agile software development. Provide the context and a direction, and give teams the freedom to self-organize, and create extra-ordinary results

Team spirit

In agile software development, it is all about the team. The team is the entity to achieve results. Teams thrive under empirical management, and servant leadership

Modesty

Modesty has everything to do with keeping it real. Be transparent, be honest, and modesty is what you get. Agile software development is about real people and real results, or lack of results. Modesty is built-in

Fun

What results can you get if you are not having fun? Agile done well appeals to intrinsic motivation. Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery are what makes people tick. fullfill these and fun is what you get.

As you may have noticed, these are Capgemini’s core values. Amazing isn’t it. These are a perfect fit for doing agile well.

These values enable a collaborative business experience, when engaging with capgemini.

DOING IT WITH AGILE IS THE ULTIMATE COLLABORATIVE BUSINESS EXPERIENCE!

We are engaging with clients in projects, in programs, in consulting, in transformation. We are shaping true agile partnerships with our partners right now, above and beyond what we’ve seen sofar. They don’t refer to us as vendors, they refer to us as partners. Exciting times, and I am glad to be part of it.

Paul Kuijten