Agile Transformation in Digital World: Digility 2020

Arijit Sarbagna General Manager /Atos Global IT Solutions

Are you directly/indirectly involved with Agile Transformation journeys? If yes, you must have come across the prominence of “Digital Transformation” in the mix. This has not only lead to a conflict in transformation journey, but also generated several questions:

  • How should an organization prioritize these?
  • How should Agile transformation journey be handled?
  • Is Agile Transformation going to be pushed back by dominance of Digital Transformation?-
  • As Agile Practitioners, how should we prepare for such challenges coming our way?

What is this all about?

Before we dive deeper, let’s see what is **”Digital Transformation”** and **why** this leads to a competition for an organization’s budget?
By definition, Digital Transformation is not necessarily about digital technology, but about the fact that technology, which is digital, allows people to solve their traditional problems. And in a narrower sense, “Digital Transformation” may refer to the concept of “going paperless”, and reaching a “digital business maturity” which affects both individual businesses and whole segments of society, such as government, mass communications, art, medicine, and science.

But how is it a challenge for Agile Transformation?

We are living in a Digital era – where industries need to be digital, need to learn fast, accordingly adapt and collect fast feedback from its customer. Now – doesn’t that sound very familiar to the principles of Agile manifesto for Software Development? Yes it does! And that is why both Digital and Agile Transformation should ideally be working together, not competing. But the challenge is – generally Agile Transformation approach focuses more on **people and process** whereas Digital Transformation strives to work with **system and tools** (e.g. introducing app modernization or cloud transition). As it is evident, unless there is a synchronization across people-process-system-tools, Industries will consider these as two separate journey and they will always be in a dilemma where to invest and how?

So, why this talk?

We explore and learn about the mindset preparation required for us “Agilists” – to ensure we are better aligned w.r.t. Digital Transformation so that we could in turn help our customers take more educated decision on their transformation journey – where Agile & Digital Transformation will work as complimentary solutions and not competing ones!

Digility = Digital + Agility

Content and Structure:

Intro:

  • What is Digital Transformation?
  • What is Agile Transformation?
  • Why we are heading for a collision course (leading to fight for budget)?

Core Elements and Overlaps

  • Digital: Mobile, Cloud, Data, Security, Analytics
  • Agile: People, Process

Adaptation

  • DEBT (Digital Effect on Business Transformation)
  • Organizations are aiming to run through both Digital & Agile Transformation. With any single transformation itself being a big challenge, how does one handle both?

Working Together

  • Patterns & Anti-Patterns
  • Approach
  • Examples

Conclusion

– Embracing Digility