How do I know if Agile is working for me or not? – An Executive’s Dilemma 資工 4A 林聖晏

OVERVIEW  Lack of clarity in the effectiveness of the agile transformation.  We felt that a good way to articulate the benefits is to state them in terms of an adapted form of the Balanced Score Card® (BSC).  At an executive-level these translate to the four dimensions of the BSC.  This paper is for management teams  simple, comprehensive, rational, credible, and unambiguous

Introduce to BSC  The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system.  Be used in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide.  To align strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals.  It is a performance measurement framework that give managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance.

Tailoring BSC in an agile context  Implementing an adapted form of the Balanced Score Card ® helped in bringing an objective view of not only during the transformation but also in measuring the sustainability of the transformation.  Such as “compass” in keeping all the stakeholders focused in the right direction.  The table below showcases the 4 dimensions of the BSC and agile variation that we brought in to fit the context.

BSC Table DimensionFocusBSC QuestionAgile Variant Financebenefit/cost ratioHow should we appear to our shareholders ? How to ensure that the highest business value is prioritized at the highest level ? Internal ProcessIs the internal process aligned with the strategy ? To satisfy shareholders and customers, what processes must excel at ? How do we ensure that the “whole team” and the operations work to reduce the time to market? CustomerIs the customer increasingly delighted by the offering ? To achieve our vision, how should we appear to our customers? Ensure that the customer feedback is incorporated into the prioritization process Learning and Growth In changing business environment how to ensuring that a “learning environment” is created and sustained ? To achieve our vision, how will we sustain our ability to change and improve? Are the ceremonies taking the organization on a path of continuous improvement?

Benefits seen after applying BSC  Show the business value realized at the end of every release  Fine tune the process of demonstrating Customer Satisfaction  Collaborate to do the “right thing right”  Foster an adaptive learning environment

Conclusion  For any measurement framework always remember :  “Not everything that can be counted counts and Not everything that counts can be counted” – Albert Einstein.