3D Agile

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, government agencies are increasingly focused on enhancing efficiency and delivering value to citizens swiftly and effectively. Agility plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals by accelerating robust, user-centric, and scalable solutions that pivot based on market or mission demands. By embracing agility, government agencies enhance their problem-solving capabilities and adaptability while strengthening their services to constituents in rapidly changing environments. 

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For over two decades, organizations have delivered more value faster through agile frameworks by incorporating user-centricity, objective measurement, and practices for sensing and responding to change. The success of agile methods has triggered a proliferation of new frameworks which, while providing diversity, can also be counterproductive. Market competition has driven the adoption of non-ideal frameworks and overemphasized strict adherence to a framework at the expense of the goal: sensing and responding to change to deliver value.

LMI’s 3D agile capability, a key component of our adaptive digital operations, overcomes this counterproductive trend by exploring agility across three critical dimensions—technical, organizational, and informational—to create a holistic and adaptable approach to meet the unique needs of an organization.

3D agile take a principles-first strategy, imbuing agile values and principles into its practices. Our agilists, with expertise across various frameworks, impartially evaluate and select the most suitable agile practices or adapt existing ones without bias toward any specific method. This strategy tailors the most effective and adaptable solutions to each unique organizational context.

Informational Agility

Discussions on agile tend to focus on building products or software rapidly. However, starting initiatives quickly is equally critical and requires informational agility. Informational agility encompasses the hard data stored in systems and the soft data that flows between people. This duality empowers teams to make informed decisions swiftly and effectively.

A data mesh (a decentralized, federated approach to data architecture) is an example of leveraging hard data to enhance informational agility. A data mesh places data ownership in the domain that produces it and introduces self-service platforms, eliminating the bottlenecks of a centralized data team. Creating transparency and accessibility around available data significantly reduces the time required to gather and use data when starting new initiatives. This availability empowers teams to initiate projects rapidly with the information they need. 

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Soft data is promoted by creating organizational structures that foster effective communication. 3D agile examines how to streamline the flow of information not just within teams but across them. For instance, team member distribution, management of cross-team dependencies, and the establishment of communities of practice can contribute to dynamic information channels for faster and more effective decision-making processes. At these nexus points, key individuals act as information brokers, spreading knowledge and observations across the organization.

Informational agility is closely linked with the other two dimensions of 3D agile: organizational and technical agility. The flow and accessibility of information are heavily influenced by the technical systems and the organizational culture that dictates how information is shared and valued. When implementing 3D agile, LMI both leverages existing data while finding individuals that represent a nexus point to enhance informational agility.

Organizational Agility

Organizational agility embodies an organization’s capacity to absorb and adapt to change. This dimension encompasses several key elements, including the organization’s culture, its structure, its processes, and the mindset of its people. It involves not just implementing changes quickly but foreseeing changes and preparing for them proactively. 

When tailoring 3D agile, LMI evaluates several key aspects:

1. The Size of the Program or Organization: Size impacts the complexity of implementing agile practices. Larger organizations need more structured frameworks to manage value delivery and dependencies across multiple teams while smaller entities benefit from more flexible and less hierarchical frameworks.
2. Dependencies and Integration: Understanding the dependencies between systems and teams in an organization is crucial for selecting the right agile framework. High interdependency requires more coordination and communication, pointing toward frameworks with robust mechanisms for promoting these interactions.
3. Legacy Systems: Legacy systems can significantly challenge agile initiatives. The selected agile framework must accommodate the integration or gradual replacement of these systems without disrupting ongoing operations.
4. Previous Agile Experience: Previous agile experience in the organization influences adoption of and adaptation for agile practices. Those new to agile might start with foundational training and simpler implementations.

Technical Agility

Technical agility not only accelerates the development process, it also ensures the relevance of solutions delivered. Technical agility is a cornerstone of a holistic agile transformation, driving innovation and efficiency across the organization. It uses many development practices traditionally associated with agile but extends to a broader range of activities not limited to engineering or development teams.

When engaging in adaptive digital operations and deploying LMI’s 3D agile capability, we consider a program’s current state to select technical practices that yield immediate value and lay the foundation for more advanced practices:

1. Continuous Delivery Pipeline: Central to technical agility is the establishment of a continuous delivery pipeline that automates the software release process. This pipeline ensures that code changes are automatically built, integrated, tested, and prepared for release to production, enabling frequent and reliable delivery with minimal manual intervention. 
2. Automation Across the Board: Extending automation to testing, configuration, and continuous monitoring reduces human error, increases efficiency, and enables the technical team to focus on more complex and valuable tasks.
3. Architectural Flexibility: Adopting architectural practices, such as microservices, plays a crucial role in enhancing technical agility. Microservices architecture breaks down applications into smaller, components that can be developed, tested, deployed, and scaled independently. This modularity reduces dependencies, enabling quicker updates and improvements.
4. Human-Centered Design (HCD): While typically not considered a technical practice, HCD is integral to technical agility. HCD focuses on understanding users’ needs and continuously integrating this understanding into the product development cycle. By aligning technical development closely with user feedback and behaviors, organizations create relevant and user-friendly solutions, reducing rework and increasing product acceptance.

Closing

Tailoring agile practices to the specific needs of a program is crucial, acknowledging each organization’s unique challenges, culture, constraints, and goals. By adapting agile practices to the distinctive characteristics of each program, 3D agile not only maximizes the relevance and effectiveness of these frameworks but equips teams with insights to continually refine their processes. This approach enhances problem-solving capabilities and adaptability and, ultimately, gives organizations a stronger competitive edge in rapidly changing environments.

Decomposing agility into its three dimensions reveals that its successful implementation is not merely determined by adopting a specific framework. Instead, agility is a spectrum. The crucial question for any organization is not simply whether it is using an agile framework but whether that framework enhances the organization’s ability to adapt and continuously deliver value. Embracing this perspective shifts the focus from strict adherence to frameworks to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. 3D agile ensures that agility permeates every aspect of operations, leading to sustained success and a robust competitive advantage in the marketplace.