Beyond Agile: Reorganizing IT For Faster Software Delivery

Agile is no longer just for the tech giants. Today, just about every type of company in every industry is hopping on this bandwagon to faster production. Agile is officially mainstream, but how is it translating to real life?

With an agile philosophy, you release digital products and services faster all while maintaining your customer experience. While this is a great step forward, innovation doesn’t need to end here. We now need to push beyond agile. We need to drastically reorganize IT in order to create a production environment that’s built on faster software delivery. In this guide, we’ll explore the best ways to do just that. 

Flexible Work Environment

The first big change on the horizon is to the workplace environment itself. More and more companies are hiring freelancers and contracts, and more companies are allowing workers to do their tasks remotely. This is the new era of the flexible workplace.

Over half of all the U.S. workforce is expected to work remotely within the next few years? This is an important step since it helps improve not only upon the talent crisis, but also on productivity. Studies show that workers are more productive when they’re at home compared to a busy office environment.

Similarly, the ability to hire workers from everywhere will allow businesses of all shapes and sizes source the best candidates. The remote worker and freelancer revolution couldn’t be more timely. It’s a big step forward in terms of faster software delivery.

Break Down Silos

While many businesses are quick to jump to agile, the number one reason so many don’t succeed is because they don’t change their business structure. Historically, software companies have seen development and customer service as two separate entities. For agile to work in this day and age, the lines need to be blurred.

It’s all about creating a cohesive, inclusive team. All departments need to adapt to these ideas, not just the development teams. If you want to push beyond agile, you need to tear down the walls in your development teams and don’t stop there. Allow team members from all departments to share their concerns and ideas.

Clearly Define Roles

It’s easy for roles to become less defined as agile takes hold of a workplace. However, there shouldn’t be any ambiguity about who’s responsible for what. Within agile, there’s an organizational structure for project managers and different task managers. Keeping these clear is the only way to succeed.

When choosing who will take charge, look for leaders and not managers. It’s not enough to allow someone to delegate blindly. There needs to be a focus on assigning roles based on skill and experience. The right leader will be able to communicate effectively, motivate others, and keep the project moving towards delivery on time.

Don’t Stop at Delivery

Finally, it’s not enough to stop your agile workflow at delivery. You need to make sure you’re using a logger to analyze your real-time status. Consumers have higher expectations than ever before. You can’t test and launch and leave your software to figure itself out.

This is even more important in the age of cyber threats. More and more companies are being targeted every day, and your software might be at risk of a data attack. It seems like every day there’s news of another breach from businesses both large and small. Since you care about your software even after launch, click here to learn about log analytics tools.

Are You Ready for Agile?

Now that you know how to reorganize your IT team for faster software delivery, you’re ready to push beyond agile. A lot of companies blindly adopt an agile workplace without giving much thought to implementation. This is a recipe for confusion and disaster. It takes a lot of planning, reorganization, and effort to make agile work for your team.

For the right company, all of this hard work pays off. Faster delivery time will help you meet customer’s needs, boost the overall experience, and create a culture of innovation. What are you waiting for?

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