Struggling to deliver software reliably?

We help technology leaders turn technology into Predictable and Agile Delivery Systems

Predictable Delivery and Agile Delivery

We help technology leaders who are struggling with unhappy stakeholders and staff, make their technology functions effective and efficient, using the Predictable and Agile Delivery System.

Few executives have the self-awareness to question WHY their organisation is struggling or the strength to ask WHAT they must do to change the situation. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be such a challenge. Searching for help suggests you are a leader open to learning. Get in touch to explore further.

What is Predictable and Agile Delivery?

A delivery system creates value for its customers.

Whilst software teams may deliver features and HR ‘delivers’ talent, delivery needs to be both agile and predictable.

But in dynamic, regulated environments, Predictable and Agile Delivery Systems need to provide:

Fastest possible time to market – results in weeks not months
Flexible and adaptable – rapid response to changing priorities
Effective and efficient – deliveries that consistently meet pre-agreed quality standards

Once they know how to do it, managers optimise delivery systems continually. Lean techniques are particularly good for increasing efficiency and Agile for improving adaptability. Both are tried and tested approaches that produce high efficiency, when implemented knowledgably.

Why is Agile Delivery so difficult to achieve?

Achieving Predictable and Agile Delivery is the toughest challenge of many executive face. Collective inertia makes changing behaviours completely different to the top-down intiatives most leaders know how to do. Instead of leaders selecting a direction, communicating the vision, and delegating responsibility for execution, Agile transformation depends on leaders walking the talk by modeling evidence-based decision-making, thinking about employees and customers first, and developing leadership at all levels.

These are big changes that leaders and managers need to make, no matter if it’s called agile transformation, agile adoption, digital transformation, DevOps, design-thinking, customer-first, or target operating model. If they don’t make it, the same persistent problems will remain unresolved, including:

Massive overruns and project failures. Plans are made on untested assumptions, which in-turn become critical dependencies for further plans. When the original assumption is proven unsafe the investment and future expectation has become so great, speaking-out becomes career-threatening.
Unpredictable IT process behaviour. Ill-informed decision-making destabilises processes, making them unmanageable and undependable.
Inability to learn from mistakes. Check-box attitudes to learning and making improvements means the same problems just keep repeating.

Agile Delivery management builds on four areas of Lean Agile practice

Predictable Agile Delivery

Predictable and agile delivery teams release value in weeks not years.

Their efficiency is high because they continuously optimise processes to eliminate defects and stabilise flow.

But what they deliver depends on prioritisation as a decision-making process.

Prioritising for Value

Prioritisation resolves tensions and diverse demands by clarifying what matters most, right now:

- Highest value to customers
- Needs of other departments
- Org and department strategy
- Given teams' capabilities and capacity

Prioritisation helps people make decisions, at all levels.

Managing for agility

Managers were written-out of the Agile movement yet they are crucial for improving Business Agility, by:

- Leading collaboration
- Ensuring prioritisation
- Developing competence

Technology managers support developers, who are "uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it."

Enterprise Engagement

Improving organisation-wide agility depends on humility and curiosity. There is no place for dogma or enforcement, as improvements emerge unexpectedly, not from pre-defined project plans.

SAFe and Scrum will highlight problems of governance, operating model, and management, so leaders should consider how they will to respond to such 'inspect and adapt' opportunities.

Successes in Numbers

Large scale Agile / Devops transformations

Agile adoption rescues

Software projects troubleshot

Enterprise software audits

Large software projects delivered

Teams agilised

Senior managers coached

00+

IT professionals trained

Clients who now enjoy Predictable and Agile Delivery Systems

Let's have a conversation

Whether we decide to work together or not, we’ll only know when we’ve had a conversation.