How can Lean-Agile accelerates your company’s digital transformation?

How does Agile Help Companies to Accelerate  Digital Transformation?

Agile's characteristics of enabling fast and frequent deliveries with a focus on continuous improvement  perfectly matches the current market needs. Today, the customer demands with satisfying products and experiences are faster and faster. No wonder  Agile is the basic operating method of startups.

The Key to Become a Digital Enterprise:  Lean Digital Transformation

Companies that are undergoing digital transformation, going through deep structural changes, bet on teams that work Agile. However, these initiatives without articulation with a robust base methodology to support them - like Lean management - end up having isolated results and cannot scale across the company. In other words, they do not promote the construction of a digital organization.

So, in order to avoid the same mistake - and end up maximizing the power of Agile - it is necessary to seek knowledge, study cases and operation formats that fit the context of your company.

At CI&T we have developed a digital transformation model based on Lean principles - delivering  only what is of value to the customer, continuous improvement and collaborations - bringing the agility, speed and mindset of experimentation in short Agile cycles. It's Lean Digital Transformation.

Three Key Elements to Achieve Digital Transformation

Now that you know agile implementation is not the only way to achieve valuable digital transformation, and that lean principles are key to support it, let's take a look at three key concepts that will help you achieve digital transformation. Agile is, of course, an important part, but it is just one of the tools in driving enterprise digital transformation.

At CI&T, we believe the following three concepts, including lean thinking and agile processes, are essential in digital transformation.

1. Set clear business goals: Before starting any digital transformation projects, it is essential to set business goals. We occasionally hear people say that they cannot see the value of digital transformation because they are simply "implementing digital" as an end in itself and not getting the expected business results. Instead, a clear picture of what you want to achieve from digital transformation, and what you want to achieve as a company and as a team, will help you to formulate strategies, select the necessary tools, and set short-term goals and OKRs until you get there, making it easier to get results. 

2. Process and Technology: Selecting the right processes and technologies is essential for accelerating digital transformation. It is also very important to determine what is most appropriate for each company's business goals and situation, rather than simply implementing the latest technology. At CI&T, we recommend Lean-Agile processes, which are tailored to the needs of each client's team and can be implemented gradually, without interfering with the progress of the project. We can help you implement agile methods without interrupting your daily operation.

3. People with Lean-Agile Mindset: At the end of the day, no matter how good your goals are or how many of the latest technologies you have in place, digital transformation will not happen if you don't have the people and environment that share your belief in agile and digital transformation, and are willing to learn and change to grow your team and your company. At CI&T, we have always believed that transformation starts with people, and digital is just a tool to support it. Especially in agile, speed is important, so a style in which the boss gives instructions to subordinates to get the work done would put a heavy burden on them. On the contrary, a team with a leader who collaborates with all team members, actively adopts innovative ideas, gives autonomy to team members, and learns and improves even if they make mistakes, is the one that can lead the transformation.

Agile Transformation - Start Small & Scale

However, we know that each company already has an established method within their company. If you have to change them all at once as you introduce Agile, it probably is not realistic.

We believe that change is something that happens continuously, over time. In fact, many of the client teams that have worked with CI&T on agile projects have never experienced working with agile methodologies before. It is important to start with what you can do as understanding agile, rather than just starting out by following agile rules 100% of the time.

Throughout the project, we will provide support for gradual transition to agile without stopping your daily work. Agile processes and thinking can be extended beyond the IT team or department. We can also help you build an agile process that works best for your company, not necessarily one that is written in an agile manifesto or guide books.

“Kaizen” Mindset Brings a Real Digital Transformation

Finally, the most important point for enterprise agile adoption and digital transformation is to have the mindset of continuous improvement, Kaizen.

As described in a development methodology, Agile involves planning (building hypotheses), development, testing, and improvement in a short period of time, repeatedly. This allows for improvements over and over again while getting feedback from customers and teams. Also, to bring innovative solutions, we start with some ideas we have not tried yet, on a small scale. For the ideas that work, you can invest more and grow with learning. All the learnings and feedback make it possible to create something far better than what was planned by the team alone.

Everything we mentioned in the article is true not only for development projects, but also for the growth of the team and the company as a whole. We live in an age where it is very difficult to predict the rapidly changing circumstances, markets, and customer needs. One of the conditions for a company to continue to grow in the future is to accept the fact that the world is constantly changing, and to constantly challenge and adapt with  new things while keeping improvement in mind.

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