Insight

Is Agile Still Relevant in Digital Transformation?

"Successful digital transformations strike a balance between planning and flexibility"

Business is being disrupted everywhere. It’s no longer a question—it’s a fact. Technology is advancing at full speed and expanding faster than businesses can adapt and respond to market shifts. New tech-based companies are now seeing significant advantages over their slower-moving competitors.

Due to the escalation of competition and the shift in customer demand, businesses must increase the speed of their service delivery and strengthen their capacity for constant innovation if they are to maintain their position in this dynamic and complicated business environment.

Then, this phenomenon raises a question: is Agile still relevant in today’s business complex environment? For accelerating Digital Transformation?

The answer surely must be: YES! Agile is still relevant!

Agile is one of the best methods to accomplish digital transformation within a business as it enables to continuously adapt to shifting deliverables and scope. The main benefit that the Agile offers is the ability to manage shifting priorities in a highly volatile environment. In other words, rather than being hindered by disruption, agile constantly adapts to market changes.

How Agile Benefits Business Throughout the Digital Transformation Process

Businesses need to be willing to try new things, be able to test them out and abandon them if they don't work and be quick to start new projects if they want to survive the growing and complex competition. Whether we like it or not, we can’t disagree that success in today's fast-paced market environment depends on flexibility and adaptability.

Here are the benefits that can be realized when implementing Agile throughout the digital transformation process:

1. Flexibility

Flexibility is at the heart of agile. Agile methodology embraces changes. When implementing agile, your team has the freedom to try and switch if they find that a different solution works better for the problems.

2. Business Value

Agile understands that technology alone can’t provide a solution. Agile makes sure that you always begin with the "why" and that your entire strategy is aligned to your business needs.

3. Continuous Improvement

Agile teams constantly analyze what’s working well and what to improve while working together. Thus, everyone can not only increase their knowledge, but also identify and apply the lessons learned to the project.

4. Regular Value Delivery

Since sprints are brief and productive, results are delivered incrementally as the project develops. Working in an agile manner means that valuable results are delivered in smaller chunks more regularly.

5. Cost Control

The team is able to accurately estimate the cost for each sprint by maintaining the same sprint lengths over the course of the project.

6. Reduced Risk

Agile practically eliminates the chance of failure. Daily updates, regular testing, and collaborative feedback at the end of each sprint guarantee that nothing is overlooked, and any problems are identified and addressed quickly.

7. Transparency

Agile ensures that every team member has the chance to learn how the project is progressing. Daily updates and progress reports provide practical, tangible ways to monitor development and control expectations at all levels.

8. Higher Quality

Work quality increases with agile as testing and optimization begin early. It enables the early detection of any issues and necessary adjustments. Agile within digital transformation also drives teams to embrace innovation and technological excellence.

Quoted from Jeff Bezoz, the Founder of Amazon:

"In today’s era of volatility, there’s no other way but to re-invent. The only sustainable advantage you can have over others is agility. That’s it. Because nothing else is sustainable. Everything else you create, somebody else will replicate."

In conclusion, agile is the “engine” to drive successful digital transformation. It helps you to continuously improve your strategies, align your goals, and incorporate real-time feedback to quickly adapt to the changing needs of today's market. Conquer digital transformation with agility!