Our new PM has been using the term ‘Agile' quite a bit. What is he talking about?
We must be 'agile'... huh?
For an agile business the primary objective is to learn what customers want and then to provide it to them.
Profit will follow if the business is set up well and it is scalable via a suitable business model.
This change of emphasis has profound impacts on the people, process and technology required such as;
- People must be willing to take a risk and adopt change - a lot of hard work can be thrown away if a product fails
- Processes must provide a great deal of customer feedback - Are they satisfied? How can we do better? How can we measure?
- Technology needs to be flexible - add, change or delete cheaply
Below is my take on the big differences between ‘traditional’ and ‘agile’ businesses - let me know if you agree, disagree or think something should be added.
An agile approach is required when customers needs are not well known.