It’s no surprise that CEOs and CIOs agree that today’s digital environment is driving change at a furious pace. In fact, a survey by Forbes found that 92% of executives believe that organizational agility is critical to business success. However, this same survey found that only 27% of executives surveyed considered themselves highly agile. This makes sense. As organizations grow in complexity, the very principles that drive agile philosophies inherently become buried. Transparency, collaboration, decision making empowerment, fast/iterative processes and continuous improvement fall by the wayside giving way to hierarchies, silos and reactionary behaviors.

Most development teams have been trained in agile. Most executives have not. Without understanding what “being agile” means — and embracing how the philosophy can be applied — it’s difficult to know how to affect the necessary changes.

Likewise, even development doesn’t always adhere to all of the parameters of agile and may, in fact, be low on the agile maturity scale. Two primary factors driving this are often the weight of the organizational structure and the resulting inability at an individual level to drive change and the common view that theoretical agile training can effectively be applied to real-world scenarios.

The Pressure To Evolve: Digital Transformation

Digital workflows and processes are changing how companies do business — 47% of CEOs are being pressured by BODs to make progress in digital change, and 84% feel that organizational agility is essential when it comes to successfully implementing digital transformation. Many companies are being forced to transform via suppliers, partners and customers as they advance as well, driving organizations to embrace the agile concepts at more than just a software development level. Companies that are having success realize the transformation process is not quick, but it does show measurable improvement.

The Burning Question: Quantifiable Results

Organizations can achieve quantifiable results in a broad range of areas, including software development, IT infrastructure, customer service and more by using agile frameworks and methodologies. As companies increase their focus on digital transformation to drive efficiencies, using agile methodologies creates an ongoing framework for rapid growth and change, which is at the root of the problem most organizations are trying to address.

In 2018, the business value of an organization-wide agile transformation is a driving factor for implementation, and quantifiable results are a crucial benchmark for success. A 2017 McKinsey report had interesting data on the lasting impact of “good implementers” — meaning organizations that had successfully driven change. Not only did they see a financial impact that outperformed the “poor implementers,” but the effect continued and grew. Two years after, the results were sustained, delivering twice the level of financial benefits.