Agile Transformation Playbook - CORBIN SOLUTIONS

Corbin Solutions GroupTransparency. Accountability. Results.

Make your technology dreams a reality.

Agile Transformation Playbook

Agile breaks large, complex problems into smallermodules that can be solved in an incremental and adaptive manner

ToAgile approach

FromTraditional approach

Perfect plans and failure avoidance

Multitasking on everything

Positive reports on progress

Control and power

Layers of hierarchical approval

Rapid adaptation and failure recovery

Dedicated focus on the most valuable work

Transparent views of prototypes

Trust and coaching

Customer collaboration and approval

Operations and innovations are complimentary, interdependent, mutually beneficial capabilities

Run the business

(operations)

Change the business

(innovation)

• Fight stagnation

• Accelerate adaption

• Limit losses from ineffective variations

• Grow gains from successful variations

• Sustain and scale proven success models

• Eliminate waste

• Develop stable and predictable processes

• Minimize the risk of variation from critical operating standards

Ensure that business and innovation find a balance and work on the same team

Copyright 2020 Corbin Solutions Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Agile teams attack market opportunities like successful start-ups do

Individuals and interactions over

processes and tools

Working solutions over excessive documentation

Customer collaboration over

rigid contracts

Responding to change over following

a plan

Establish a fun, creative working environment

Trust and empowercapable people with minimum viable bureaucracy

Removeimpediments to theirsuccesses

Facilitate frequentface-to-facecommunications

Break complex problems into manageable modules

Experiment with small parts of the solution for short periods

Deliver working solutions in each cycle of work that are ready for customer feedback

Prioritize what customers value most; deliver as quickly as possible

Test and learn with a few customers to prove that innovation can create profitable customers

Adapt as customers learn what they really value

Create a vision and plan, but plan in detail only activities that won’t change before execution

Celebrate learning that improves the team’s direction

Turn more innovations into ‘two-way doors’


There are two general approaches to agile transitions

Bureaucratic big bang

•Spend 6-9 months preparing for the big event•Copy the structures of apparently agile companies•Fire everyone and rehire 70-80% (often in different positions)

•Assign as many people as possible to agile “tribes”

•Works best when: •The busines is troubled•The company needs serious cost reduction and an entirely new organization structure

•Leadership knows exactly how many agile teams it needs, where, and by when

•The culture is receptive to agility•The business has enough talented and experienced agile practitioners to staff all teams

•The business can operate on autopilot while people learn new jobs

•Leaders need to take major risks

Agile development

•View agile scaling as an agile initiative •Launch agile teams in waves•Prioritize and sequence initiatives•Test, learn and adjust the teams and operating model over time

•Works best when: •Leaders intend to exemplify agile values•Growth is more important than cost reduction•The greatest needs are innovation and speed•Leadership is uncertain how far or how fast it should push toward an agile enterprise

•The organization needs time to develop more agile cultures and practitioners

•Excessive organizational trauma could harm results and reduce agility

•Leaders do need to take major risks


An enterprise-level transformation requires a holistic approach

Business Agility

Team Agility


Corbin Solutions Agile Strategy & Transformation Playbook

The building blocks of an agile transformation


The leadership team transforms from a collection of silo heads to an agile team


CMO CFO CIO CHRO COOBranding and advertising operations

Reporting, transactions and analysis

Technology architecture and operations

Setting and delivering HR policies

Delivery against operational targets

Operational accountabilities

Centralizing customer data and insights

Improving feedback channels

Identifying high-value customer initiatives

Strengthening talent planning and resource allocation visibility

Adapting talent system for agile teaming, including hiring, training and coaching

Coaching leadership team on agile values and behaviors from IT experience

Improving process to kickoff new cross-functional agile teams

Applying financial tools to help build and prioritize the strategic backlog

Adapting planning and budgeting processes to better enable innovation

Creating processes to connect agile innovation teams to operations

Strategy, culture, and innovation accountabilities

Top Ten for doing agile right Use agile approaches to build an agile business system

Apply agile principles everywhere and use agile practices as tools for agile teams

Deploy teams with clear, compelling objectives that are: small, autonomous, customer-focused, multi-

disciplinary, dedicated, psychologically safe, and collectively intelligent

Create prioritized, sequenced, transparent backlogs with adaptive roadmaps

Work in small batches, with rapid feedback loops and frequent wins

Make rapid decisions and swiftly remove impediments

Develop metrics for tracking and improving inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and purposes

Define explicit roles and responsibilities to define, discover, design, develop and deliver agile

innovation initiatives

Set a sustainable, energizing pace

Constantly shift resources from lower return activities to higher return activities


Unlock your organization’s capacity through digital transformation.

Capture more market share

Meet ambitious deadlines

Embrace innovation

WEBSITE: CorbinSolutionsGroup.comEMAIL: [email protected]: (512) 925-1009

Schedule Your Discovery Interview

Agile Transformation Playbook - CORBIN SOLUTIONS

Documents