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Rethinking Agile: Why Agile Teams Have Nothing To Do With Business Agility
All of the agile cards have been pulled, and nonetheless new products still do not get faster to the market. If this situation seems familiar, you should read this story about a company that prepared their agile transition in exemplary 600 employees reorganized into cross-functional teams, their work visualized and practically perfect Standups and Retrospectives held. The Time-to-Market for the products became worse � and not a trace of business agility.This book shows you what goes wrong with many agile transitions and why the desired improvements fail to materialize. You also learn how to get out of a dead end and what can be done before starting a transformation in order to prevent heading down a dead end to begin with.A little Do not start by making teams agile � this will save your nerves and lots of money!
134 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 2, 2019
Rethinking Agile is a kind of book that makes you reflect on the real meaning of business agility. If you are facing digital transformation issues like faster competitors, customers complain, or accelerate technology change; you must read this work.
Klaus brought that optimizing elements isolated from one another doesn't create agile organizations. Instead, we need to see an organization on different perspectives (strategy, coordination, and operation) or flight levels as he introduced on the book.
With excellent examples he presented a way of developing system thinking when the business challenge is to reduce time to market.
I would highlight some takeaways:
1. Implementing agile methods is a mean, not the purpose to achieve business agility.
2. Organizational change should start with the company processes, not on organizational structure.
3. Manage and eliminate dependencies are essential in a way to promote business agility.
4. Visualize the whole value stream instead of team workflow will help you understand how fast it’s possible to create solutions for your customers.
5. The outcome is more important than the output, so the organization needs to connect the results with the work in progress.
6. Visualize and optimize the organization's decision process if you want to be agile.
7. Working costs money, delivering makes money.
8. Don’t waste your time estimating something that needs to be done.
9. The first agile team to be established at a transformation process should be upper management.
10. Be lean: make things visible, manage the amount of work in process, create feedback loops routines, and improve the way you work.
I highly recommend this book for directors, managers, agile experts, product managers, and product development teams.
Klaus brought that optimizing elements isolated from one another doesn't create agile organizations. Instead, we need to see an organization on different perspectives (strategy, coordination, and operation) or flight levels as he introduced on the book.
With excellent examples he presented a way of developing system thinking when the business challenge is to reduce time to market.
I would highlight some takeaways:
1. Implementing agile methods is a mean, not the purpose to achieve business agility.
2. Organizational change should start with the company processes, not on organizational structure.
3. Manage and eliminate dependencies are essential in a way to promote business agility.
4. Visualize the whole value stream instead of team workflow will help you understand how fast it’s possible to create solutions for your customers.
5. The outcome is more important than the output, so the organization needs to connect the results with the work in progress.
6. Visualize and optimize the organization's decision process if you want to be agile.
7. Working costs money, delivering makes money.
8. Don’t waste your time estimating something that needs to be done.
9. The first agile team to be established at a transformation process should be upper management.
10. Be lean: make things visible, manage the amount of work in process, create feedback loops routines, and improve the way you work.
I highly recommend this book for directors, managers, agile experts, product managers, and product development teams.
October 31, 2018
Wundervolles kleines Buch! Optisch sehr ansprechend und angenehm zu lesen. Eine case study mit vielen Erklärungen, die auch interessant ist, wenn man die anderen Bücher von Klaus Leopold bereits kennt! :-)
September 24, 2019
I strongly recommend this book to everyone involved in an Agile (and / or digital) transformation.
You will find many reasons about the fail of transformations such as to take so long time to evaluate business initiatives that the author called Upstream.
Most people is concerned only in the Downstream (or Development) where Scrum can help but without considering the whole big picture or Value Stream Mapping Scrum or Kanban or whatever won't impact in time to market.
Last but not least, the author treat many times with WIP that is a huge challenge for companies. As soon any manager found (or think) a great idea said let's work on it without taking into account the rest of work in process and the capacity of teams.
You will find many reasons about the fail of transformations such as to take so long time to evaluate business initiatives that the author called Upstream.
Most people is concerned only in the Downstream (or Development) where Scrum can help but without considering the whole big picture or Value Stream Mapping Scrum or Kanban or whatever won't impact in time to market.
Last but not least, the author treat many times with WIP that is a huge challenge for companies. As soon any manager found (or think) a great idea said let's work on it without taking into account the rest of work in process and the capacity of teams.
March 14, 2023
Muito interessante a visão do autor sobre Business Agility, e como ser ágil é diferente de só usar “metodologias ágeis�. Principalmente quando ele chama a atenção de que as empresas focam muito em melhorias locais nos times e esquecem de olhar a cadeia inteira de geração de valor na empresa, pra otimizar globalmente.
November 30, 2022
Short simple and precise! Don't just copy. Makes sure you think about things properly!
December 4, 2023
A case study for an evening.
If you are familiar with Scrum and Kanban, but lack the practical aspect of magic pills, this book is for you.
If you are familiar with Scrum and Kanban, but lack the practical aspect of magic pills, this book is for you.
October 8, 2020
A critical book for the ones discussing agile management, praising the usage of words such as sprints, scrum, kanbam and all other "agile therms checklist". It shows the problems in companies when agility is the responsability of the operations teams and points a series of practical solutions in different "flight levels".
June 11, 2023
A nice short book making you think about business agility.
Nothing groundbreakingly new, especially if you already know the Flight Levels concept, but engagingly told in a nice story and visual format.
Also, some annoying language mistakes in the English edition make it obvious that a German speaker wrote this without editing. (At least in the 2018 edition, newer editions might have improved this.)
Nothing groundbreakingly new, especially if you already know the Flight Levels concept, but engagingly told in a nice story and visual format.
Also, some annoying language mistakes in the English edition make it obvious that a German speaker wrote this without editing. (At least in the 2018 edition, newer editions might have improved this.)
March 3, 2020
A very light and pragmatic approach into organizing work at different levels in organizations.
However, the text inside illustrations in the kindle version are sometimes hard to read.
All in all, a great work from Klaus!
However, the text inside illustrations in the kindle version are sometimes hard to read.
All in all, a great work from Klaus!
April 22, 2021
A good and simple read, with clear messages. Focuses on bringing Kanban practices to drive Business Agility. The whole story focuses around a case study, which makes it more real. Spend 3 evenings to read it, it will be time well invested.
November 24, 2022
Todo está dicho en el tÃtulo, no solo el desarrollo tiene que ser ágil sino que desde la ideación. El proceso en su totalidad.
November 2, 2019
Beautiful pictures and design decorate a PDF book (the one I bought in Leanpub) that talks about Kanban without talking about Kanban. Klaus has been talking about his brilliant metaphor of Flight Levels for a while and now his thoughts are in a book.
Business Agility and thinking at a higher level than teams is the topic, and he manages to introduce concepts like Pull, Flow Efficiency and Little's Law in an easy way. Visualise, Limit WIP, Feedback Loops.
The story about the hero that came to rescue the company that was doing it wrong did not work for me.
Business Agility and thinking at a higher level than teams is the topic, and he manages to introduce concepts like Pull, Flow Efficiency and Little's Law in an easy way. Visualise, Limit WIP, Feedback Loops.
The story about the hero that came to rescue the company that was doing it wrong did not work for me.
December 14, 2020
This book is relatively short but contains so many good ideas and insights.
I can highly recommend this book to everyone involved or interested in agile working environments.
I can highly recommend this book to everyone involved or interested in agile working environments.
November 7, 2019
A nice case study about being agile on the right places of the company. The reading is easy and fast, and the ideas presented make much sense in practice. Mind, though, not to copy the case to your own company, ignoring the context. The author himself tells you not to do such a thing. Instead, try to understand the rationale behind the solution presented and check if the principles apply to your context.
I just missed some numbers and sincere appointments of limitations and mistakes the author occasionally made while running the process described in the case. These would bring much more credibility to the book.
I just missed some numbers and sincere appointments of limitations and mistakes the author occasionally made while running the process described in the case. These would bring much more credibility to the book.
December 31, 2018
Leicht verdauliche, angenehm kurze aber dennoch gehaltvolle Darstellung, warum Agilität auf Team oder Umsetzungs-Ebene meist nicht ausreicht - nebst anschaulichen Ansätzen, was zu tun ist, um Agilität auch auf anderen Ebenen (Flight-Level) zu erreichen.
April 24, 2023
Finally! Someone brave enough to tell you that your agile transformation is not going to get you much other than local optimization. Scrum might make a team agile, but it won't make your business agile.
December 31, 2022
I really liked it in the first reading.
Now, re-reading for comprehensive note-taking, I'm giving it 5*
Now, re-reading for comprehensive note-taking, I'm giving it 5*
May 11, 2020
Ich habe das Buch gelesen, weil es mir von einem Scrum-Master als sehr lesenswert empfohlen wurde. Das im Selbstverlag des Autors herausgegebene und in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzte Buch enthält leider nichts neues. Oberflächliche Dinge werden in einem typischen selbstbeweihräuchernden Werbestil eines Consultants beschrieben, der halt seinen nächsten Gig verkaufen will.
Die Geschichte ist aufgebaut, dass eine Firma bereits zahlreiche Consultants bezahlt hat für einen grösseren Umbauprozess der IT-Abteilung, der halt leider nicht funktioniert, wie erwünscht. Der Held wird dazu gerufen und erkennt die Probleme sofort (selbstverständlich). Kein Wunder. Die vorhergehenden Consultants haben halt einfach Mist gebaut, wie rasch sogar Laien erkennen würden:
Oh Wunder, wenn man nicht den ganzen Teil der Wertschöpfungskette berücksichtigt sondern nur einen kleinen Ausschnitt daraus, stellt sich kein überragender Erfolg ein. Komplette Überraschung. :-)
Nebenbei aufgefallen: es sind an einigen Stellen Fremdwörter eingebaut (keine Spoilers hier), die wohl Fachkompetenz darstellen sollen. Die Begriffe treffen die zu beschreibenden Ideen jedoch nicht genau, wie wenn der Autor die Begriffe halt nicht genau kennen würde. Auf tiefergehende Erklärungen hofft man eh vergebens.
Man kann nur hoffen, dass Firmen nicht die erstbeschriebenen Consultants beschäftigten, dass sie dann auf solche Heldentaten angewiesen sind. Man muss hoffen, dass Leser nicht grundlegendste neue Einsichten in diesem Buch sehen. In diesen Settings arbeitenden Personen, die grundlegend neues in diesem Buch erkennen, fehlen schlichtweg wesentliche Grundlagen zur professionellen Arbeit in diesem Bereich.
Nebst den Abbildungen (was üblich ist) wird auch für den Text selbst eine Drittperson genannt. Die Frage stellt sich am Schluss, wie viel vom ganzen Buch stammt wirklich vom Autor selbst und wie viel von seinen Mitarbeiterinnen. Doch das ist nochmals eine andere Geschichte. Positiver Punkt: Das Buch war zum Glück nicht überrissen teuer.
Hinweis: Mit diesem Review wird nur dieses Buch bewertet, das deutlich zu oberflächlich und nicht weiterführend ist. Es wird keine Aussage gemacht über die eigentliche Consulting-Tätigkeit des Autors, die wahrscheinlich sicher vorzüglich ist.
Die Geschichte ist aufgebaut, dass eine Firma bereits zahlreiche Consultants bezahlt hat für einen grösseren Umbauprozess der IT-Abteilung, der halt leider nicht funktioniert, wie erwünscht. Der Held wird dazu gerufen und erkennt die Probleme sofort (selbstverständlich). Kein Wunder. Die vorhergehenden Consultants haben halt einfach Mist gebaut, wie rasch sogar Laien erkennen würden:
Oh Wunder, wenn man nicht den ganzen Teil der Wertschöpfungskette berücksichtigt sondern nur einen kleinen Ausschnitt daraus, stellt sich kein überragender Erfolg ein. Komplette Überraschung. :-)
Nebenbei aufgefallen: es sind an einigen Stellen Fremdwörter eingebaut (keine Spoilers hier), die wohl Fachkompetenz darstellen sollen. Die Begriffe treffen die zu beschreibenden Ideen jedoch nicht genau, wie wenn der Autor die Begriffe halt nicht genau kennen würde. Auf tiefergehende Erklärungen hofft man eh vergebens.
Man kann nur hoffen, dass Firmen nicht die erstbeschriebenen Consultants beschäftigten, dass sie dann auf solche Heldentaten angewiesen sind. Man muss hoffen, dass Leser nicht grundlegendste neue Einsichten in diesem Buch sehen. In diesen Settings arbeitenden Personen, die grundlegend neues in diesem Buch erkennen, fehlen schlichtweg wesentliche Grundlagen zur professionellen Arbeit in diesem Bereich.
Nebst den Abbildungen (was üblich ist) wird auch für den Text selbst eine Drittperson genannt. Die Frage stellt sich am Schluss, wie viel vom ganzen Buch stammt wirklich vom Autor selbst und wie viel von seinen Mitarbeiterinnen. Doch das ist nochmals eine andere Geschichte. Positiver Punkt: Das Buch war zum Glück nicht überrissen teuer.
Hinweis: Mit diesem Review wird nur dieses Buch bewertet, das deutlich zu oberflächlich und nicht weiterführend ist. Es wird keine Aussage gemacht über die eigentliche Consulting-Tätigkeit des Autors, die wahrscheinlich sicher vorzüglich ist.
August 25, 2024
Después de la decepción que me supuso la lectura de Agile 2 este libro si que ha cumplido con creces las expectativas que tenÃa de él.
El libro es un caso de estudio en el que una transformación Agile ejecutada de forma aparentemente correcta resulta en un fracaso: no se cumplen los objetivos por la cual se comenzó.
Klaus es contratado como consultor externo y va analizando las causas, se van proponiendo soluciones y se va viendo como funcionan.
Un libro que te hace reflexionar sobre los motivos que suelen hacer fracasar las trasformaciones ágiles, como anteponer la aplicación de un marco a alcanzar los objetivos que se perseguÃan con el cambio, o que se transformen los equipos operativos pero no se haga nada a nivel de coordinación, gestión de dependencias y alta dirección.
Cómo se suele decir una imagen vale más que mil palabras y el libro explica las cosas de forma muy visual y clara con la mitad de palabras y páginas que libros de este tipo, lo que lo hace muy fácil de digerir.
Por último la traducción al español creo que está bastante bien (quitando que se les ha olvidado traducir una viñeta completa 🤷), de mantienen los términos en inglés más extendidos pero se acompaña de un glosario al final del libro.
El libro es un caso de estudio en el que una transformación Agile ejecutada de forma aparentemente correcta resulta en un fracaso: no se cumplen los objetivos por la cual se comenzó.
Klaus es contratado como consultor externo y va analizando las causas, se van proponiendo soluciones y se va viendo como funcionan.
Un libro que te hace reflexionar sobre los motivos que suelen hacer fracasar las trasformaciones ágiles, como anteponer la aplicación de un marco a alcanzar los objetivos que se perseguÃan con el cambio, o que se transformen los equipos operativos pero no se haga nada a nivel de coordinación, gestión de dependencias y alta dirección.
Cómo se suele decir una imagen vale más que mil palabras y el libro explica las cosas de forma muy visual y clara con la mitad de palabras y páginas que libros de este tipo, lo que lo hace muy fácil de digerir.
Por último la traducción al español creo que está bastante bien (quitando que se les ha olvidado traducir una viñeta completa 🤷), de mantienen los términos en inglés más extendidos pero se acompaña de un glosario al final del libro.
March 2, 2023
Short and concise. I think it can be a good read after Inspired, by Marty Cagan. While Cagan's book provides more advice for product management, here Leopold provides more practical advice for the people in the broader areas of product development.
Both books touch on the core of whole Agile� dilemma of the 2020s: software development team agility (aka Extreme Programming techniques such as automated testing, continuous integration, pair programming, retros, etc.) is just a tiny fraction of what Agility really is. Business agility is the real objective, though it is the hardest part of agility, since it requires deep changes in the organization, from financial planning to strategic thinking. Without that, you basically end up being part of the sea of complaints you see in online forums about "Agile is dead".
Both books touch on the core of whole Agile� dilemma of the 2020s: software development team agility (aka Extreme Programming techniques such as automated testing, continuous integration, pair programming, retros, etc.) is just a tiny fraction of what Agility really is. Business agility is the real objective, though it is the hardest part of agility, since it requires deep changes in the organization, from financial planning to strategic thinking. Without that, you basically end up being part of the sea of complaints you see in online forums about "Agile is dead".
November 28, 2020
Although the book has pertinent concepts and ideas, I found it too abstract in terms on how to land the concepts, what are the results and where has them been proved to work.
There’s a high level narrative of just one case of business agility, and the shown results are not conclusive.
The flight level part is very theoretical and I couldn’t see how to implement it through the audiobook.
It seems to be all the time criticizing agile transformation approaches but his own approach relativized everything, leaving people without a clear path.
I liked the concepts, but I wish I had seen more practical examples, more cases and more conclusive evidences of his approach.
There’s a high level narrative of just one case of business agility, and the shown results are not conclusive.
The flight level part is very theoretical and I couldn’t see how to implement it through the audiobook.
It seems to be all the time criticizing agile transformation approaches but his own approach relativized everything, leaving people without a clear path.
I liked the concepts, but I wish I had seen more practical examples, more cases and more conclusive evidences of his approach.
November 10, 2020
Why did our Agile initiative come to a grinding halt ? Why is the velocity tapering off ? Where are the promises of the Agile movement ? Read on and you might find the answers here.
Language is to the point and not repetitive, for those working in large lumbering giants will find a lot relevant here, while getting some tried suggestions to unearth, expose and fix problems with agile initiative to finally deliver the promise of speed.
Language is to the point and not repetitive, for those working in large lumbering giants will find a lot relevant here, while getting some tried suggestions to unearth, expose and fix problems with agile initiative to finally deliver the promise of speed.
January 1, 2024
Buena historia, buenos ejemplos, ideas interesantes para replantearse como ser ágil empresarialmente, no solo implementar agilidad en los equipos de TI.
"El truco de la agilidad empresarial consiste en transformar positivamente las métricas empresariales. Es genial si se puede entregar un 8% más de funcionalidad, pero si nadie la necesita, se ha entregado un 8% más de desecho."
=> Outcomes over outputs
"El truco de la agilidad empresarial consiste en transformar positivamente las métricas empresariales. Es genial si se puede entregar un 8% más de funcionalidad, pero si nadie la necesita, se ha entregado un 8% más de desecho."
=> Outcomes over outputs
December 31, 2020
This is probably the best book you will read on the challenges of Agile adoption and scalation from a business perspective and from a local department perspective in any organization.
It addresses what really matters, what usually goes wrong and how to overcome the roadblocks on the journey.
"Business Agility has nothing to do with Agile Teams."
It addresses what really matters, what usually goes wrong and how to overcome the roadblocks on the journey.
"Business Agility has nothing to do with Agile Teams."
Read
May 25, 2023A great book to understand agility in business and its pitfalls. I was pleasantly surprised by its depth and honesty - not everything works for everyone. I must say I have not understood the whole theory but I think most of it will be understanding the process in real life. Curious how that will play out in reality.
January 16, 2020
Man merkt dem Autor den starken Bezug zu Kanban an, was allerdings nicht abträglich ist. Sehr bildhaft Agilität in einem Unternehmen erklärt und wie man dort hinkommen kann. Für erfahrene Agilisten ist die Einführung sehr einfach gehalten, aber die folgenden Kapitel ziehen dann inhaltlich an.
August 17, 2020
Co-creando dinámicas propias
Una adaptación muy simple de agilidad a las vivencias reales de un caso particular que nos invita a no seguir modelos al pie de la letra sino a ir co-creando dinámicas propias.
Una adaptación muy simple de agilidad a las vivencias reales de un caso particular que nos invita a no seguir modelos al pie de la letra sino a ir co-creando dinámicas propias.
February 27, 2021
Klaus brings up great points of how team’s agility does not equal business agility (among other good points). The book focuses on a case study of a business.
I would give the content 4 stars, the editing brings it down to 3.
I would give the content 4 stars, the editing brings it down to 3.
July 22, 2021
Great explanation about how to surface (and act on) dependencies between teams. Also, a cool guide to using to manage initiatives and investments combined with OKRs. I love how Mr. Leopold explain the beauty of limiting WIP.
September 21, 2021
So simple yet so insightful. A quick read with wonderful illustrations and much profound advice. My best nugget? "To make your business more agile, step one is to start at the top: the first agile team to be established should be upper management."
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