INFOGRAPHIC
INFOGRAPHIC
IQbusiness publishes 2019
State of Agile SA report
F
ollowing on the last two years’
successful State of Agile SA Reports,
independent management consulting
firm IQbusiness has released its 2019 State
of Agile SA Report.
The 2019 report doubled as a call to
action for companies to adopt a more
agile approach across the value chain, to
challenge leadership to enable better ways
of working in all areas and, most importantly,
to solidify the customer as the ‘golden
thread’ in all activities in order to achieve
business agility.
“
WHAT DECISION-
MAKERS NEED
TO REALISE,
THOUGH, IS
THAT AGILE AS
A PHILOSOPHY
IS NOT A SILVER
BULLET TO SOLVE
THE PROBLEM OF
SLOW PRODUCT
DELIVERY.
20
INTELLIGENTCIO
The need for organisations to become agile
is even more compelling. More than just a
buzzword, business agility means optimised
value delivery to the customer, which
inherently has a strong link to culture and
mindset; an ecosystem of people, process
and technology.
The report is based on six in-depth interviews
with expert industry practitioners, as well
as a quantitative survey of 263 individuals
working in South African companies of
various sizes.
The conclusion is there is much room for
improvement towards peak customer value
delivery enabled through a shift in the end-
to-end system and its underlying culture.
The quantitative data clearly indicated the
most significant reasons for adopting agile
– to accelerate product delivery, improve
the ability to adapt to change, improve
business and IT alignment, and enhance
product quality.
In stark contrast, the survey results indicated
that actual benefits realised were improved
collaboration and visibility, whereas faster
time to market and enhanced product
quality were the benefits least experienced
by survey respondents.
Biase De Gregorio, Agile Lead at IQbusiness,
said: “More organisations are starting
to adopt an agile business approach,
embracing the principles and practices. What
decision-makers need to realise, though,
is that agile as a philosophy is not a silver
bullet to solve the problem of slow product
delivery. Rather, it’s the ability to respond
more effectively and efficiently to customer
needs through prioritising the products and
features that provide the best customer
value which, in turn, will lead to improved
business value.”
As the report states, only 25% of
management and senior management
report a notable improvement in the ability
to adapt to change. This is primarily because
organisations are still project and matrix
organisations, with traditional budgeting
processes that will slow them down.
Over and above this, agile ways of working
have been a focus predominantly within IT
and not necessarily upstream (customer and
business requirements) and downstream
(operations). IT is no longer the bottleneck;
agile ways of working need to be adopted
across the value chain. Without shifting the
entire value chain, leadership can’t expect to
experience the full benefits of Business Agility.
IQbusiness states that it’s important to
note that Agile Software Development was
intended to make the world safe for software
developers and when the 17 authors
created the Agile Manifesto in 2001, they
didn’t intend for these values and principles
to scale into large corporates. However,
organisations should realise that there is
a burning platform to become ‘business
agile’ in order to remain relevant in today’s
highly competitive and ever-changing
market. Based on both the qualitative and
quantitative research, there is massive
benefit further along the path towards
business agility. n
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