Winning competition through organizational agility
May 2016
Copyright © 2016 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved.
2
What is agility and what is the value of being agile?
1
Elements of agile organization2
How to become agile?3
3
Today
Organizational structure and mission have passed throughseveral development eras
Last 10 yearsLast century1,000 years ago10,000 years ago
Metaphor: WOLFPACK
Metaphor: ARMY
Metaphor: MACHINE
Metaphor: FAMILY
Metaphor: LIVING ORGANISM
F. Laloux, Reinventing organizations
4
Management approaches have evolved substantially toward a bigger role for individuals in decision making and work organization
F. Laloux, Reinventing organizations
▪ Catholic church▪ Army▪ Feudal systems
▪ General Electric, Procter & Gamble
▪ Southwest Airlines, Ben & Jerrys
▪ Spotify▪ Zappos▪ Buurtzorg
▪ Tribal organizations
Metaphor: WOLFPACK Metaphor: ARMY Metaphor: MACHINE Metaphor: FAMILYMetaphor: LIVING ORGANISM
▪ Authoritative▪ Hierarchical
▪ Goal oriented▪ Top-down decision
making
▪ Consensus based▪ Employees involved
in decision making
▪ Distributed leadership▪ Common goals as
main motivating factor
▪ Power drivenManagement approach
▪ Official roles▪ Process definition
▪ Push for Innovation▪ Meritocracy
▪ Delegation▪ Value-based corporate
culture
▪ Self-organization▪ Goal orientation ▪ Evolutionary growth
targets
▪ Submission to head▪ Segregation of duties
Key features
5
The “living organism” organization is able to cope with today’s rapidly changing world
SOURCE: McKinsey
The world has becomeVUCA …
… with implicationsfor businesses
V Volatility Decisions and adjustments need to be executed at a much faster pace
U Uncertainty Strategy and organization must change faster than once every 2-3 years
C Complexity Management teams are less able to set guidelines applicable in all situations
VU
A Ambiguity Companies face unknown unknowns, decisions must be made at the forefront
6SOURCE: McKinsey
Agility is not a new concept: the “living organism” has shown how work should be approached and the momentum keeps increasing
First examplesas far back as 1950
2000s acceleratedthe trend
Tipping point2015-2016
▪ Existed long before the internet - even the great internet examples are based on old principles
▪ Millennials & demand for more “purpose” at work
▪ Scalability via digital tools▪ Reducing economies of scale,
outsourcing
▪ Customer sophistication, multi-channel world
▪ Increasing adoption of Agile across industries
7
Agility is about being both dynamic and stable at the same time…
Stable, efficient and lean organization
SOURCE: McKinsey Organization Design Service Line
Agility is traditionally perceived as a choice..
…but in reality you need bothat the same time
Dynamic nimble and quick organization
Dynamic, nimble, and quick organization
Stable, efficient, and lean organization
8
… and is the target for both large traditional companies and smaller, dynamic start-ups
Control
Fast
Fast
Slow
StrongWeak
Start-ups
SOURCE: McKinsey Organization Design Service Line
9
Agile companies demonstrate superior organizational healthand financial performance …
X2,0
X2,2EBITDA
Book value growth
SOURCE: McKinsey Corporate Agility KIP; McKinsey Organization Practice
% of agile companies by quartilesof org. health
% of companies with performanceabove median
Bottom Mid Top
5 25 70Bottom Mid Top
31 48 68
Bottom Mid Top
31 52 62
10
… and operational performanceTraditional Agile
12
1
-90%
-40%100
60 70
-30%100
127+27%100
Time to market Productivitymonths Percent
“Change” cost “Change” headcountPercent Percent
SOURCE: McKinsey Organization Design Service Line, interviews
11
What do we mean by an Agile Organization?
McKinsey’s Definition of Agile
SOURCE: McKinsey Organization Design Service Line
An agile organization has a highly productive operating model that fluidly reconfigures towards opportunities that create value, while highly engaging andempowering people
12
What is agility and what is the value of being agile?
1
Elements of agile organization2
How to become agile?3
13
Agile is a completely new way of working
SOURCE: Agile Manifesto
Agile working was originally developed in 2001 as the12 principles of agility for Software production and was successfully adapted to all organizational aspect states…
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
People and interaction over Processes and tools
Working software over Comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation
Responding to change over Following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more”
14
Agility rethinks organization across 5 key dimensions
Operating model
Methods Core Technical Foundations
Support functions
Change Management
1 2Organization Program definition 3 Teams 4 Co-location
5 Engineering methods
6 Technological Architecture
7 Continuous delivery
8 Release Management
9 Change and release process
10 Environments and APIs
11 12Finance HR 13 VendorManagement 14 KPIs & Metrics
15 16Centers of excellence Training 17 Mindset &
behavior 18 Communication
Detailed later
15
Chapter Squad
TribeGuilds
Visualization/transparency
Daily Stand-ups
SOURCE: McKinsey analysis
1. Organizing for agility – “tribes”, “squads”, “chapters”
Structure Process
▪ Chapters are functional competence groups (e.g. product manager, programmer)
▪ They meet each other regularly to exchange
▪ Ensure high quality resources available for staffing in squads
▪ Guilds are informal communities across tribes
▪ Guilds gather people with the same interest, who want to share practices and knowledge
▪ Cross-functional, self-organizing, self-learning teams, co-location▪ High accountability and E2E responsibility
▪ Group of squads, e.g., around music player
▪ Less than 100 people to foster effective collaboration
▪ Conducts regular gatherings to inform of current status, and share learnings
▪ Group of business and development resources, e.g., for payment solution
▪ Located physically together▪ Have skills and tools to design, develop,
test, and release their SW▪ Self-organizing and decide about their own
way of working▪ Product owner prioritizes the work,
but is not involved in how it is undertaken
▪ No upfront overall planning▪ End-product focus through,
e.g., continuous integration and test-driven development
▪ Many flexible processes boxed in short “sprints”, making work transparentto all
▪ No long-term project plan, but clear interaction rhythm– Daily: 5-15 min stand-up
to coordinate– Bi-weekly: progress review
and gaps/ deprioritization– Quarterly/6-monthly: strategic
product council to prioritize products and allocate IT teams
16
2. Program definition – optimal compromise between top-down directions and horizontal autonomy
SOURCE: McKinsey
Board
Management layer
Strategy
Squads
Tribe/Clusters
StrategyThemes
Epics
Product features
History
3 years 1 year 12 weeks 2 weeks2-12 weeksPlanning/upward feedback timing
A way of achieving business results with concrete business case and KPI
A way of achieving business results in defined micro-segment or functional subarea with concrete KPI
Description of client experience for the products or service for each tribe
E2E client journey/experience related to the product/service assigned to each squad
whathow
whathow
whathow
whathow
Board level
17
3. Work in Agile teams
▪ One cross-functional team consisting of all necessary stakeholders
▪ End-to-end responsible ▪ Team has mandate to make
or influence decisions▪ Team is accountable for critical
business metrics▪ Transparent KPI dashboard on metrics
vs performance▪ 9-12 persons to ensure efficiency
and joint accountability (no free riders)
▪ Trust via weekly team meetings and daily check-ins
▪ Connectivity via online instant messaging in team, co-location etc.
▪ Growth of individuals and teams via open 360 feedback
▪ Autonomy via giving the team the team as much power as possible (level 2 or 3)
▪ Setting up the team and defining mission▪ Training in integrative team problem
solving and Agile – “How to make effective decisions as a team”
▪ Coaching and facilitation support in case team is not meeting the bar
▪ Functional expertise, best practices and tools from the other teams
▪ Efficient infrastructure, e.g., Common tools, digital systems and platforms
SOURCE: McKinsey
Starting point: Well-defined team with a clear mission
1 Applies best practicesof Agile
2 Supported by thestable backbone in charge of…
3
18
30
70
10
10
0
0
10
30
30
10
0
0
100%
Value-add work
Self-development
Syndication withother functions
Agile organization
Idea generation
Meetings
Administrativetasks
Traditional organization
Meetings
Value-add work
09:00-09:15 Team check-in at board
09:15-11:30 Work on to do’s
11:30-12:00 Team based problem solving (Kaizen) on specific topics
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:00 Individual working time on a subject matter
14:30-17:50 Working on to do’s
17:50-18:00 Individual check-out
14:00-14:30 Quickly gather input in team and take key design decision
08:30-09:00 Come to area of cross-functional team, check open to do’s on board
3. Agility profoundly affects the daily work of individuals in squads
Typical squad daily routine in Agile
SOURCE: McKinsey Organization Design Service Line
19
3. Team includes a leadership triangle and a working teamwith strong specialization
▪ Represents the business community▪ Ensures value delivery▪ Acts as voice of the customerProduct owner
▪ Oversees the Scrum process and coaches the team▪ Removes impediments to facilitate progress▪ Enables cooperation across all roles and functions
Scrum master
▪ Drives the technical direction of the project by coaching the team▪ Facilitates the creation of technical architecture▪ Helps the team implement software engineering practices for higher code
qualityArchitect
▪ Delivers potentially shippable software at every sprint▪ Staffed with cross functional team members▪ Is self-organizing and empowered
Team
SOURCE: McKinsey Organization Design Service Line
20
4. Co-Location: the team room should serve as a source of inspiration and energy for the team
AA
BC
C
D G
F
A
B CD
Small team room to host all members of each Feature Team with adjustable desks and easy access to each other’s screens
A
Lounge area with whiteboards outside the room to perform daily stand-ups and sprint planning, retrospectives
B
Huddle room for one-on-one discussions and coffee breaksC
Screens demonstrating KPIs in real timeD
Boards for process mapping and trackingA
Plenty of wall spaceB
Enough workstations for the entire teamC
Preferably daylight to increase energy levelD
Easy access to restrooms, cafeteria to minimize time lossE
Printers and office suppliesF
Meeting room facilitiesG
WiFi-access for all team membersH
The ideal room setup should perfectly accommodate the needs of feature teams (Spotify example)
If this is not possible, at least a minimum set of features needs to be in place
Critical features Critical features
E
SOURCE: McKinsey
21
5. Lean, Agile and DevOps need to be combined to ensure continuous delivery in combination with agile frameworks
Client Agile teams IT operations
Lean Product Development
Agile
DevOps
Lean Product Development emphasizes small batches, rapid feedback and limiting work in progress in order to achieve continuous flow
Agile improves collaboration within and across teams by enabling development of working solutions frequently to iteratively align requirements with client/customer
DevOps improves collaboration between agile teams and IT Ops in order to deliver through faster release cycles, using continuous delivery
SOURCE: McKinsey
22
Working software
Sprintrequirements
Product requirements
Sprint: 2 weeks
5. The combination of Lean product development, Agile and DevOps shifts delivery from the traditional waterfall to a flexible, iterative model
SOURCE: Client interviews
… to a flexible, iterative model (e.g. Scrum)From fixed duration waterfall …
Scoping
Requirements
Design
Build
IT Testing
User Acceptance Testing Deployment
Post production support
8 weeks
8 weeks
8 weeks
8 weeks
8 weeks
4 weeks
1 week
4 weeks
23
5. The sprint process
Sprint Backlog Time-boxedTest/Develop(No changes)
Working features ready to deploy
Product Backlog(prioritized features)
Sprint 0 (Release planning)
Time-boxed “Sprint” Cycles (2 weeks)
Sprint Planning
▪ Review product backlog
▪ Estimate sprint backlog
Daily Stand up
▪ What did I do yesterday?
▪ What do I plan to do today?
▪ What are my issues?
Sprint Review
▪ Demo features to all
▪ Share key project metrics
Sprint Retrospective
▪ Done after each sprint
▪ Aims to improve the process for next sprint
SOURCE: McKinsey
24
Technical readiness
Hig
h
Bus
ines
s re
adin
ess
3
2
1Low
Med
ium
HighLow Medium
6. However, there are optimal agile archetypes for each level of business and technical readiness
Examples (30+ parameters):▪ Value add potential▪ Readiness to adopt
agility, and agility cultural fit
▪ Strong push for innovation required
▪ Fast changing business requirements and needs
Examples (30+ parameters)▪ Complexity of enabling technology▪ Opportunity to auto-test software, parallel
programming, …▪ Level of insourcing of product/software development
Pure Agile
Fast Waterfall
3
Fast Iterative2
1
SOURCE: McKinsey
25
“Flying”“Starting to walk”“Learning to crawl” “Running”
7. Continuous Delivery builds on 8 practices and can be implemented at 4 different levels
Version control
Unit and integration testing
Unit tests
Functional tests
Perf. tests
Security tests
Development
QA
Staging
Test driven development
ProductionAuto-scaling of infrastructure
Cloud
1 Suite of automated tests4 One-click continuous deploy to any environment
5 Self-service access to prod-like environments
6
2
Streamlined code review
3 Continuously integrate w. “single source of truth”
7
8 Automated performance management
Build status Code metrics Site monitoring Integrated logging
SOURCE: McKinsey
26
8. Release management needs tailoring to the agile archetype adopted by different teams
Legacy team
Agile team
▪ Legacy teams work Agile as well, or are fully integrated in a multidisciplinary team and deliver functionality in periodic sprints
▪ Agile team awaits release of required back-end systems and works Agile to deliver functionality built on top of backend changes
▪ Required services are extensively documented up-front
▪ Agile and back-end team deliver E2E functionalityby working closely together and directly discussing required services
▪ Legacy functionalities delivered via micro-releases, though leveraging traditional approach
Fast waterfall 1 Fast Iterative2 Pure agile3
Legacyteam
Agile team
Legacy team
Agile team
SOURCE: McKinsey
27
8. Multiple tools are available to support agile ways of working
Source code management Build tools Continuous integration
Automated testing Code quality measure Infrastructure automation
Infrastructure as a service Monitoring Log Management
SOURCE: McKinsey
28
11. Finance and budgeting in agile organizations
Investment philosophy
▪ Instead of approving total budget for a multi-year core banking transformation, select the most critical MVPs and make the decision to proceed based on their success
▪ Experiment with uncertainty on business value and make incremental investments based on value creation, which are closely monitored and revised
Financial authority
▪ Delegate financial decisions as much as feasible within approved limits
▪ Allow CPOs to reallocate the budget within the programs based on programme backlog while tracking the total programme budget
▪ Allow POs to reallocate the budget within the team based on feature backlog
Planning process
▪ Ensure maximum involvement of delivery organization in planning process
▪ Budget for each program is planned jointly by CPO from the business and Program manager from IT
Flexibility ▪ Reconsider priorities inside the program when required without complicated administrative process
▪ Enable CPOs to decide on the spend based on the program backlog and redefine priority features for different teams when needed
Reporting ▪ Add benefit tracking in addition to cost tracking ▪ Review the success of each program and delivered benefits at quarterly program board meetings and regular retrospectives with the business
Main features Examples
CLIENT EXAMPLE
SOURCE: McKinsey
29
12. Flexible staffing and roll-off decisions
Portfolio ▪ Portfolio board members decide on roll-off
of the Program managers and Chief product owners based on performance and closure of the program
▪ Board approves overall budget and staffing plan for each epic proposed by tribe leads
Tribe ▪ Program manager develops plans for the program
▪ Tribe Lead approves staffing plan for the program
▪ Program manager conducts final interview to ensure fit in the program
▪ Program manager approves team member roll-off decisions and initiates the process of moving the resources to a separate HR talent pool
Squads ▪ Product owner approves the staffing plan per team, jointly with chapter leads
▪ Scrum master submits plan based on what is in the backlog per team
▪ Iteration manager conducts first interview to ensure fit in the team
▪ Scrum master initiates roll-off decisions based on team member performance and required capacity of the team
HR ▪ HR facilitates hiring process and ensures compliance with bank policies
▪ HR manages separate HR talent pool and reallocates resources that do not fit in new structure
Staffing decisions Roll-off decisions
CLIENT EXAMPLE
SOURCE: McKinsey
30
13. Relationships with key vendors need to be revised to enable more dynamic sizing of squads
SOURCE : McKinsey
▪ Insource scarce and strategic capabilities▪ Shift work more to time and material▪ Define clear responsibility for deliverables▪ More flexible approach to forecasting
of demand (e.g. require vendors to provide/roll-off up 20% more resources within 2 week if needed)
▪ Build Agile capabilities for outsourced resources and coordination layer
▪ Contracts based on trust with common incentives (e.g. vendor fees depend on the project delivering the benefits in the business case)
▪ Ambitious push for innovation – frequentcommunication and shared understanding of market context becomes necessary
▪ Close and intensive interaction between team members on-site
▪ Cross-functional and cross-domain teams▪ Highly flexible scope and requirements▪ Smaller work packages that are delivered
in sprints, with strong need for coordination
New requirements for vendors Agile vendor management approach
31
14. Different KPIs can be used to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the teams across key domains
Financials ▪ % of working hours (productive) dedicated to development of committed epics, including
▪ Helps teams maximize share of time dedicated to delivery
Quality ▪ Helps teams to take on reasonable deadline commitments
▪ New Agile development issues logged within sprint (per team)
Productivity ▪ Monitors number of features committed compared to capacity, ensuring balance between both
▪ Committed story points per gross team hour worked (hours per day x days x team members - deductions)
Timeliness ▪ Analyses difference between committed development and delivered points
▪ Story points delivered divided by story points committed per sprint
Organizationhealth
▪ Ensures sustainable health and involvement of employees
▪ Surveys of engagement and excitement of employees (surveys)
Why it is important Examples
SOURCE: McKinsey
32
15. Agile transformation requires a dedicated Center of Excellence
COE executivecommittee
COE lead
Metricsand communication
Change leads per business/ IT area
Coaching hubPractice hub Guilds
15-25
1
3-5 20-40
2-3
SOURCE: McKinsey
33
16. All employees and management in agile development go through a 5-day training program in addition to daily training on-the job
13:00 LUNCH
Time
Mindset & behavior
Waste
Monday Tuesday
18:00 Drinks
Wednesday
17:00 Reflection on yourWhy & What of Agile
Reflection on yourWhy & What of Agile
Reflection on yourWhy & What of Agile
Reflection on yourWhy & What of Agile
16:00 Continuous improvement towards perfection Agile: Practical experiences Agile safari
Thursday
09:00 Introduction Review previous day Review previous day Review previous day Review previous day
Friday
Why and what of Agile
10:00 Continuous Delivery Flow Seeing the whole (system thinking) Starting Agile and scaling up
Commitment11:00 Kanban
12:00 Lean and agile principles Operational management & KPIs
Continuous improvement exercise Agile – practical experiences
15:00 EvaluationOM of self directed teams
KPIs cont.
Portfolio management and planning
Leading the change
Being a change role modelPerformance management
14:00 Basics of scrum Commitment contd.
First line and middle management are in the driver’s seat
1 9 9 9 9
2 11
10
16
15
21
20
243 12
4
5
6
7
6
12
13
14
8
17
18
8
8
25
22
23
8
4
25
CLIENT EXAMPLE
SOURCE: McKinsey
34
17. Agile culture builds around several building blocksCLIENT EXAMPLE
AGILE TEAM PHILOSOPHY ATTRIBUTES: Self-organizing organizational units, based on Size-limited, End-to-end responsible team working in time boxed, well defined sprints delivering new products to the market (potentially) in a continuous fashion
CommitmentScrum teams commit to goals and are accountable for results; each sprint creates value
FocusLimited non value activities, End-to-end way of looking at problems; fully dedicated resources
RespectFostering ownership and mutual trust instead of ‘command and control’; positive work environment, Roles not hierarchy
OpennessInformation freely accessible Open and public peer-to-peer feedback
Customers firstPutting the customer’s voice into everything delivered to unlock the true value
Courage for change Fast failure, fast iterations operational modeOpenness to change, try and fail/succeed
SOURCE: McKinsey
35
18. A holistic communication plan has to followed to foster the change across the board
Town-halls ▪ Town-halls are full-day or half-day events with participants from the entire organization▪ Ideally suited to announce big initiatives (e.g., capability model kick-off) and celebrate success
E-mail newsletter or blog▪ Frequent, short updates to show continuous progress on the transformation to keep momentum going▪ Ideally suited to announce upcoming events, gather feedback on ideas, and announce important
changes
Video▪ Short videos, preferably by well-known personalities in the organization (e.g., CXO,
head of transformation)▪ Ideally suited to reach a wide audience while retaining the personal touch of a townhall
Communities▪ Communities are self-organizing informal gatherings of people interested in a specific topic
(e.g., certain capabilities or tools)▪ Ideally suited to foster knowledge exchange within the organization to supplement structured
coaching approaches
Public presentation(e.g., at conferences)
▪ Active participation in public presentations (e.g. Automation conference) by letting selected staff present their achievements and share approaches with a wider audience and foster knowledge exchange
Description
Round-tables ▪ Exchange of experiences and best-practices in round tables in the same industry or across industries
Community ▪ Share achievements in the transformation and development efforts (e.g., by making key concepts or software tools available as open source)
Inte
rnal
com
mun
icat
ion
Exte
rnal
com
mun
icat
ion
Channel
SOURCE: McKinsey
36
What is agility and what is the value of being agile?
1
Elements of agile organization2
How to become agile?3
37
The agile transformation can be structured in several ways
… ……
Agile only in selected, strategic customer journeys
Bi-modal organization aligned with technical/business readiness Full-fledge agile organization
▪ Only selected, highly critical products and customer journeys
▪ No significant organizational changes required
▪ Virtual and temporary agile teams embedded in existing organization
▪ Agile methodology implemented in areas with high business and technological readiness
▪ Local Organizational changes required (bi-modal organization) in agile areas
▪ Agile methodology implemented across whole organization
▪ Areas with lower business and technological readiness adopt “fast waterfall” archetype
▪ Massive Organizational change
SOURCE: McKinsey
38
Agile transformation needs to be structured along waves
Design
Pilot phase
Transformation
Timing ▪ 3 months ▪ Depending on scale ▪ 2-3 months
Activities
▪ Piloting and “trial & error” in selected areas
▪ Preparation of agile “cookbook”
▪ Transformation planning▪ Communication plan
▪ Target agile model selection
▪ High-level design of target organizational model and processes
▪ Identification of pilot areas and training of key roles
▪ Planning of pilot phase, and communication
▪ Execution of organizational changes
▪ Full implementation of agile processes and tools
▪ Full co-location of teams and training on-the-job
SOURCE: McKinsey
39
Our core beliefs for a successful Agility Journey
Agility requires the executive team to give up top-down, directive control, and empower the organization to take decisions
Readiness to give up individual control
Agility requires a holistic change in the operating model, ways of working and management paradigm – not just “implementing levers”
Fundamental change, not individual levers
Success depends on being able to simultaneously top-down design a stable operating model and allow learning & local adaptation in growing the dynamic elements
Combine the bottom-up with the top-down
Managers need to let go of the need for predictability and control and allow for flexibility in how both the journey and end state will look
Dare to leap into the unknown, let go & learn
First prototypes and implementation actions should start in business critical areas of the organization and be tied to overall business objectives
Launch in the most critical areas first to secure momentum
Many organizations have Agile parts (e.g. innovation units, War Rooms) –the challenge is to scale this beyond the 10% to the whole organization
Scale beyond the tipping point
SOURCE: McKinsey