Jobs, the 2013 American biographical drama based on the life of Steve Paul Jobs, perfectly shows an Agile methodology at work. Ashton Kutcher playing Steve builds and heads the Macintosh team which works on the sole target of making Macintosh easier, faster, and more efficient than it already is. It’s a mindset of considering the company’s past product as its competitor to develop the next one.
Now, whether you’ve noticed or not, for a long time, until the mid-90s, products were developed, successfully sold in the market, and then newer products came along. But, currently, products enter the market, they are successfully sold and then a better version of that product is put out for sale. So, in a way what the consumer gets is a better functioning iteration of the already put out product rather than a completely new product.
This strategy stemmed out from Lean and started to grow firstly in the software field, wherein the terminology got a written representation in its Manifesto that was put out in 2001. Since then, the Agile tree has given its shed to manufacturing, retail, petroleum, human resources, budgeting, auditing, and what not!
So, what are the future climatic changes that this twenty-year-old Agile tree promises to deliver? How will it affect the upcoming technological monsoons and prepare our organizations for the deadly less-managerial summers? Well, we can not exactly tell. All we can try is to gauge the future from the present data. Here we go.
An unprecedented number of Agile teams
Agile methodologies were invented before the digital revolution and hence they were typically penned down for co-located teams that can physically reach out to each other quickly and react to the transforming conditions. In the current age of digitization and the future which has it in excess, companies will work to overcome the challenge of defining and reaping benefits out of remote Agile methodology.
This will become almost necessary for developing a global product. Team resources from multiple geographies are recruited by international organizations for joining the Agile revolution.
Organizational Agility will replace the place of priority that was held by team Agility.
The concept of team Agility came from the manifesto which means, it's 20 years old now and so, is as outdated as infrared smoke alarms. However, this outdated concept will be taken in a much broader sense and be applicable to complete organizations rather than just the R & D, engineering, or product development department.
After all, such a task is even more challenging and at the same time it enables us to achieve, acquire as well as sustain a competitive edge as an organization in the rapidly changing market.
Agile project management will become mandatory
Agile methodologies and the Agile mindset mainly deals with managerial aspects in an organization. And to an extent, this fact was just considered like any non-interpreted data. However, a striking change came just a year before the last one i.e. in 2019 when the Project Management Institute declared the acquisition of Disciplined Agile.
The organization announced the refinement of the most popular certification course for managers globally. Project Management Professional certification program now expects participants to be aware of the state of the art methodologies such as Agile.
Increase in Agile tutorship
This one comes hand in hand with the previously mentioned prediction about Agile methodology. In fact, without an increase in Agile tutorship, it’s not possible to generate more managers who can successfully carry out Agile project management.
And as the Agile tutorship market grows, just like any tutorship market, it will also face difficulties regarding the authenticity of the institutions or individuals offering the education, which in turn would lead to the development of a solid framework around Agile, like the ones that we have for other subjects!
The proliferation of organizations providing Agile modification services
The demand for Agile tutorship will also call for Agile modification service providers at an affordable price. But it is intriguing to question exactly where the tutors and service providers will come from. The most obvious answer has to be from the experimenters in the field that make alterations to get various results.
Having stated so, the very nature of most Agile methodologies except for Scrum is quite nascent. So, it’s best to wait till experimenters catch up with other methodologies at the same pace. Only then can you expect a legit organization as an Agile modification service provider.
Conclusion
The last three gauges are the most fascinating ones to look out for among the mentioned five. Chiefly because they are chained with each other in a directly proportional manner! Whereas, the top two will form a basis on which the veracity of the bottom three depend.
Having stated this, something that’s also worth considering is how organizations typically adapt to individual Agile methodologies like Scrum, DevOps, Safe, Prince2’s, Spotify, Disciplined Agile, etc. A study was done in 2020 that predicted the future of them all based on the ground check which at that time revealed how Scrum was bound to remain as a foundation, DevOps would grow, Safe and Prince2 would lead and scale-up, Spotify will die, and Discipline Agile will top at least in the USA.
Overall, the roots of the Agile Tree are bound to grow, and keen observation will lead to the closest prediction f the direction they’ll choose to expand apart from the five that are mentioned above.
siva krishnaPosted Sep 17, 2021, 10:05 AM
Very well said, Jainam. Indeed, Organizational Agility will replace the place of priority that was held by team Agility. Agile transformation can steer an organization through any crisis, as this blog explains - https://bit.ly/3znJ237
Pranam BhatPosted Jun 24, 2021, 4:47 AM
Good one. Very useful. Thank you!
Gurpreet AroraPosted Jun 23, 2021, 3:41 PM
Amazing explanation