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CONTROL: PRECONDITION FOR SUSTAINABLE AGILE SUCCESSFor managers and controllers looking for control and added value in Agile organisations

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INTRODUCTIONYour organisation’s transition to an Agile way of working is a fact. Your department is working completely Agile, and there is plenty of support for the new way of working.

It took a while, but we/they got used to it. Teams of seven (+/- two) developers are talking a lot, putting things up on the wall, and there is constant constructive feedback. You can also notice a positive effect on product development and customer satisfaction. The teams work more independently. Top-down is no longer the creed, bottom-up is the new reality.

As a manager, you support the Agile principles. And now the first hurdles have been passed, you can see the transition to Agile beginning to bear fruit.

But you are still missing your own role in this. Or perhaps you are experiencing less control and are doubtful of how to tackle the administration and take responsibility. After all, you are responsible for feeding and following the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. You are still the person who senses whether or not there is enough control over the work that is being done. You indicate whether people are on top of things, put risks on the agenda and take advantage of opportunities to improve. But how do you do that with autonomous teams? Is there even a need for a manager or controller who checks the team, the production process and the numbers?

If so, how do you transform yourself into a manager or controller that combines all that? How do you become a manager who can reach his full potential in the Agile world, without losing control? More than that, how do you become that manager who undeniably keeps adding value to the organisation, the management and the teams?

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AGILE: IN OR OUT OF CONTROL?Agile and control are seen by many as a contradictio in terminis. This is a stubborn misconception. Contrary to what people claim, positions such as manager, controller, PMO and auditor are not superfluous within the Agile playing field. On the contrary. These positions, if played the right way, add immense value to the Agile organisation! The import for the organisation and contribution to success coincide with the correct fulfilment of those roles.

Recent research among 62 organisations in the Netherlands and Belgium has shown that around 50 percent of financial managers feel like they are not ‘in control’ thanks to Agile. They indicate they seem to have lost grip on their autonomously operating team, and as a result, the numbers as well. Just to be clear, these managers are all supporters of the Agile way of working. The problem is the interpretation of their role. How do they stay involved in the work processes of their autonomous teams? How do they retain their grip on the input and output, on the numbers, and on the processes? And most of all, how can they keep offering added value to their organisation with their specific qualities?This is what occupies them.

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TRANSITION REQUIRES ACTIONThe Agile philosophy has been embraced worldwide.Internationally operating young companies such as Spotify, Netflix and Google have integrated Agile principles into their way of working since the beginning. It was not an active choice, and it made them grow. Organisational processes at these multinationals have originated in and developed from the Agile philosophy, just like the positions and roles of all employees, across all levels. The companies mentioned are regularly used as shining examples. What they do, other companies should do. A second misconception.

The story of these new organisations cannot be copied by existing companies. They were created from different DNA. They have never had to make the choice to work the Agile way. It’s like comparing a lion tamer to a tightrope walker, and then saying that the lion tamer, who is working towards sticking his head in the lion’s mouth, can learn from the tightrope walker who is in control during every little step. A recent article in HBR cites Spotify as a shining example of the balance between autonomy and accountability. The conclusion rightly states that this will not work for everyone; that organisations have to invent the wheel for themselves. For organisations that use a traditional way of working, transitioning to Agile is a lot more work than just embracing the Agile principles and copying the administration mechanisms used by other people.

The transformation to Agile is, in the end, a major shift in culture and it influences every facet of the organisation. It has vast consequences for the actions of individual employees, teams and departments, and definitely middle-management as well. The latter is stuck between a rock and a hard place: the autonomous teams no longer appear to need a controlling manager, while the top management still expects that level of control… as they should, seeing as they still bear final responsibility. They cannot go to their shareholders telling them about enthusiastic, capable, but self-willed ‘A-teams’ – “dear shareholder, things may be a bit harsher, but things will start to get better from now on. You’ll see.”

This is a real problem that managers and controllers struggle with every day. At first they were positively expectant. Now they see that it is not blowing over, and will not sort itself out. The first tears appear, and action is required. But this subject is never formally discussed in many organisations. On the one hand, this is because managers see serious threats to their own position, despite their enthusiasm about working Agile. On the other hand, it is because the Agile approach has not been implemented correctly and completely enough. Organisations will work with Agile teams, but for instance will maintain existing KPIs and management information systems. The manager has to carry out his controlling duties as before.

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A missed opportunity!This is because the manager who not only stimulates his teams in working Agile, but also adjusts his own role and tasks to the Agile philosophy, is incredibly valuable to his organisation. Moreover, he can become a driving force that lifts the organisation to new heights. This manager holds the key to making the Agile transition a smashing success. He can accelerate that process and become the new leader. This manager is capable of recognising dangers even earlier, and adjusting the process accordingly. He is also optimally capable of identifying and utilising opportunities for improvement… all without compromising Agile.

AGILE MANAGEMENT: AN ART IN ITSELFThe Agile manager, administrator or controller creates the frameworks in which the teams operate. It is their job to create clarity in this area. Without a clear framework, after all, teams are less capable of working autonomously and so will not perform as well. The framework makes transparent what we can expect from each other. It makes mutual responsibilities clear and prevents overlap. It compels focus from both the manager and the team.

Think of it as the lines around a football pitch. Within the lines, the teams know exactly what is expected of them. When the lines are gone, the teams are constantly bothered by coaches and audience who walk on to the pitch with the best intentions. It would also become unclear to the teams, coaches and audience when someone scores a goal.

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EXAMPLE OF WHITE LINESNon Functional Requirements (NFRs), Definition of Done (DoD) and Acceptance Criteria (AC) are examples of white lines that are required to implement Agile working and required to make every team work autonomously without compromising on the measure of control.

The NFRs are generally defined centrally and top-down, and apply to the organisation as a whole. They can, for instance, apply to security, performance and scalability.

The DoD contains the bottom-up house rules of the team or programme. It makes clear what the team stands for and what requirements the results presented have to meet, in addition to general rules. Teams for instance record if and how they document, test and integrate.

The AC are additional specific demands for a project or parts of the work that are mostly created from the perspective of the client. The clearer the intention of the NFRs and DoDs is for all involved, the fewer ACs need to be defined.

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Agile in Control

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Agile out of Control

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These three factors combined cover an important part of the PDCA cycle, provided they are well appointed and adhered to. Less of one thing requires more of the other. An important advantage compared to ‘before’ is that you go through that cycle each Sprint (usually two weeks)! Is it working well? Then Done really is Done and we are in control.

Are the three factors insufficiently encompassing, or are they not adhered to? As a manager or controller, you then have to conclude that the organisation is, at this point, out of control. It doesn’t go wrong right away, all those involved have the best intentions after all, but it cannot be said that as a whole, we are doing our job in a controlled way. Presumably, that cannot keep going well indefinitely.

It seems simple. But most organisations (yes, including the large progressive ones!) have not sufficiently defined their ‘white lines.’ Many Agile organisations are at this point theoretically out of control. Generally speaking, people do their work well enough and they are highly motivated to turn their project into a success. It won’t go wrong right away. But the measure of control will remain very limited. And that is exactly what many managers and controllers experience.

This is one of the subjects where Agile managers and controllers can make a positive difference. This is their role! Who else will help the organisation get on through sharp reflections and offering support? As a manager, it’s best to stay away from checklists. You can, however, ask teams targeted questions as their ‘servant leader’ about such things as Acceptance Criteria or NFRs. This will quickly give you a clear picture of the current situation. And you may be invited to lend them a helping hand.

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An Agile manager has to add value. But he or she has to know how. The transition from the old way of working to Agile takes guts. You have to be brave enough to change and to critically examine your own role and your permanent tasks. The goal is to create more control, without undermining your team’s autonomy. This requires bravery and insight.

The power of Agile principles and methods such as Scrum, Kanban and XP, is that these can be organised flexibly. This flexibility simultaneously requires that the transition to, and adoption of, Agile working has to take the organisation’s context into account. Especially if we want to be in control even more after the transition. A successful adoption of Agile demands that we understand success factors, make them explicit, and use them as a starting point. Think for instance of innovative strength, ROI, risk appetite, rules and regulations in the country and/or sector, employee autonomy, etc.

Regrettably, there is no easy answer to the question ‘how do I become an Agile manager or controller who adds value to my organisation?’ If someone promises you the answer, don’t believe them. There is no silver bullet and there is no standard approach to optimally arrange control in an Agile organisation. And most likely there won’t be any. Unless organisations are part of a category of highly comparable entities. For this homogeneous groups, generic solutions can of course be thought up. However, these organisations will likely have more urgent challenges.

What to do to keep grip? Agile conventions, gurus, authors and bloggers usually don’t focus on this less popular topic. These people generally come from the software sector, so they are less objective. The same goes for frameworks to apply Agile or scrum on a large scale, e.g. SAFe, DAD, NEXUS, LeSS.

The Agile in Control training does not shy away from the conflict between Agile and control. It provides a helping hand to reinstate control in your Agile organisation and to more effectively organise it. Dozens of practical examples of KPIs, reports and management measures are discussed as inspiration. This training is intended especially for managers and controllers who want to be Agile while also looking for inspiration on how to increase the measure of control. For professionals who want to connect the top of the organisation, who want to know what is going on, with the teams who need autonomy to perform.

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EXAMPLE OF AGILE MANAGEMENT REPORTING

KPIs, reports, management dashboards. They have often grown organically over the years. The management is not keen on letting this go without a good reason. Agile ways or working themselves are no longer a threat. When seen properly, it offers managers and controllers additional options to make management information more action-oriented, and to be more in control.

The transition to Agile is an opportunity to sharpen reports, without creating conflict with Agile. This can be achieved by using the ‘Agile in Control – Framework’, in four steps:1. Analyse existing reports and divide the contents into two groups: Accountable and Being Proactive.

i. Accountable: information that is not supplied frequently, but does have to be correct and complete (think of the annual report and KPIs such as turnover and average absenteeism).

ii. Being Proactive: information that is required frequently and can contain inaccuracies, as long as it helps you be proactive (think of operational reports and KPIs such as orders and sick notifications per month).

3. Divide the content from both groups into the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard (Financial, Customer, Processes, and Learning & Growth).

4. Introduce a new group, apart from A and B, which can focus on quickly delivering sustainable added value for the client, working from Agile principles. Creating Customer Value.

5. Fill out the matrix further, take a step back, and have a look with half-closed eyes:i. Create focus: what can be left out of regular reports (double, not action/ambition-oriented)ii. Restore balance: correct under/overrepresented cells where possibleiii. Optimise: design new reports per target group

This approach does not solve problems. It helps to structure the right conversation and to work transparently on a suitable solution. Would you like to know more about this framework? Then read our two-part series on this (Agile in Control – Framework, The power of reporting for Agile organisations).

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ContactGladwell AcademyBarbara Strozzilaan 2011083 HN AmsterdamNederlandPhone | +31 (0)20 2402244Email address | info@gladwell.nl

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Andres Jansen is a trainer at Gladwell Academy and consultant for BlinkLane Consulting. He has been active as an advisor and trainer for over 15 years, focusing on innovation and IT. For the past years, he has focused on making organisations easier to manage, more flexible and more action-oriented. Andres takes decisive actions and has a pragmatic attitude.

TWO-DAY AGILE IN CONTROL TRAININGAndres is also the trainer for our two-day Agile in Control training. During this training, Andres gives tips and tricks on how Agile ways of working provide additional opportunities to remain ‘in control.’ Visit the website for current dates.

Apart from this white paper, Andres Jansen has written an interesting two-part series about Agile and Reporting.

Part 1: Does management reporting create conflict with a transition to Agile?Part 2: The ABC for reporting in an agile organisation