Organizations that are able to move quickly and respond to changes in their market environment are the ones that not only survive, but thrive in highly disruptive markets. Responsible employees come together to form innovative, high-performance teams that deliver on their promises. These teams are always successful because they identify problems in time, psychologically appropriate these problems and collaborate to develop creative solutions and achieve the desired results, which boosts organizational agility. To be agile or to develop agility, two elements are required: stability and dynamic capacity.
Dynamic capacity involves the ability to move very fast and, at the same time, to respond highly to changes. On the other hand, stability means having a stable base, a platform or spine that doesn't change. Over time, this stable backbone of the company will act as an anchor point that won't change, even as other business aspects are constantly changing. Organizational agility requires companies to understand both the operational value streams (OVS) that offer business solutions to their customers and the development value streams (“DVS”, which are SAFe's main focus) that develop those solutions. To achieve business agility and operational alignment, you must transform your workplace culture and get rid of processes that hinder flexibility, such as working in silos, using outdated tools, having manual procedures that can be automated, and so on. People with optimistic ideas and agile teams: everyone involved in delivering solutions is trained in Lean and Agile methods and adopts their values, principles and practices.
Senior management is involved in this aspect of business agility, and it is expected that they will routinely meet and develop an effective strategy within the specific characteristics of the current environment. Agile organizations adapt to change, can serve internal and external customers quickly, and continuously seek ways to streamline operations. Any major change occurs with the right mindset, and the same can be said when starting the journey to achieving organizational agility. Organizations must be able to act quickly and effectively in the face of any new opportunity or crisis in order to succeed in a dynamic business environment. The addition of other business departments, such as sales, procurement, finance and human resources, can have an even greater impact on the entire organization and, potentially, increase the long-term benefits of applying agile methodology. In today's digital economy, the only truly sustainable competitive advantage is the speed at which an organization can detect and respond to the needs of its customers.
With the advent of the DevSecOps movement, IT operations and security are also rapidly adopting the agile methodology. Organizational agility is a key factor for success in today's ever-changing business environment. To unlock its power within your organization you need to have a stable base combined with dynamic capacity. You must also understand both operational value streams (OVS) and development value streams (DVS) as well as transform your workplace culture by getting rid of processes that hinder flexibility. Finally, you need to involve senior management in developing an effective strategy within the specific characteristics of your current environment.
