As technology executives embark on their journey in development and delivery modernization, they should have a comprehensive understanding of challenges, trends, and critical decisions in the industry. An agile journey allows firms to acknowledge all major initiatives and be adaptable to market changes. Now is the time to go beyond the inaugural steps and recognize the investment, experimentation, modern practices, and technology that will arise in this journey. Just like traveling to Mars, as a previous Forrester report compared the agile journey to, there are unknowns and unforeseen challenges you should prepare for. The Executive Guide 2022: Agile Transformation provides you with tools for a successful journey beyond the stratosphere.

The work toward a successful agile transformation will require tech execs to: 

  • Lead agile transformation, not just commit to it. 
  • Introduce flexibility everywhere — even at the infrastructure level.
  • Eliminate barriers to all necessary changes.
  • Understand that 100% agile isn’t possible.
  • Pair agile with DevOps, site reliability engineering (SRE), and automation.
  • Force collaboration with domain experts to ensure cloud success.

At this point, you may be five years into your transformation journey; however, you are still being introduced to new trends that support your ability to scale agile. Here I have identified the latest trends that you should pay attention to: integrating agile into enterprise governance to obtain its business benefits, measuring business value rather than efficiency, and introducing value stream management to achieve agile sustainability. These trends are setting your company up for long-time success. Agile is about the long game; lean in on these trends to support your unique agile journey. 

How Do You Achieve Success? 

Success begins when technology executives are involved and paying attention to decisions and relationships between stakeholders. You must: 

  • Determine how you will pivot investments. Your investment should not be a one-time upfront cost but ever-evolving.
  • Decide on the best scaling framework for your company. You may encounter disputes between which framework suits your company better: SAFe, Spotify, or others. Find the mix that works for you.
  • Battle the regression to waterfall. Utilize immersive experiences to consolidate learning and avoid old behaviors from creeping back.
  • Change your team structures to reinforce these decisions. As mentioned, old behaviors have a way of creeping back; therefore, real org structure to reinforce ways of work are necessary. 
  • Select the right modern application development services (MADS) partners. Accelerate your journey with the right agile system integrators and consulting companies will help scale your transformation. Read Now Tech: Modern Application Development Services, Q1 2022 to support you in the process. 

You can find more in the report we just published, and do reach out to dlogiudice@forrester.com for comments or questions. We’re happy to hear back from you.