Agile vs Business Agility

Agile and Business Agility. You may have heard these terms before but what’s the difference between them? It turns out there’s quite a big difference and hopefully, we can clear that up a bit.
So, here we go: Agile vs Business Agility.

Agile

Agile is commonly associated with the Agile Manifesto written in 2001, and more recently, Modern Agile. It’s often linked with team delivery and is based on four main values:

• Individuals & Interactions

• Working Software

• Customer Collaboration

• Responding to Change

Business Agility

Business Agility takes agile concepts and principles and elevates them to be applied across the entire enterprise. The Business Agility Institute and the Enterprise Business Agility model are thought leaders in this area.

Business Agility is a broader concept, aiming to make the entire enterprise flexible and nimble, not just implementing new processes into teams. It involves a variety of modern ways of working, techniques implemented against several pillars:

1. Customer Seat At The Table
   • Involves the customer and focuses on being a customer-centric organization. Companies like Amazon and Google attribute much of their success to giving the customer a voice during development.
2. Lean Portfolio Management
   • Prioritizes alignment and achievement of business outcomes. Techniques such as Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) and Big Room Planning (BRP) fall under this pillar.
3. Organizational Structure & Design
   • One major challenge in delivering business outcomes is the ability to swarm around business problems. This requires breaking down silos to create high-performing missions. In a changing business world, companies need to learn how to redesign themselves from the inside out.
4. Agile Framework & Mindset
   • Finding or building an Agile Framework that fits your organization and ensuring the agile mindset is embraced and nurtured.
5. Leadership & Culture
   • Uplifting an organization’s culture can yield significant business results, but it starts at the top. Leaders need to understand how to encourage true transformation within their organization.
6. Make It Stick/Sustain
   • Undertaking a Business Agility transformation is a big investment. It’s important to ensure you don’t revert to old patterns and behaviors.
7. Technology Agility
   • Focuses on the technology and processes used to enhance your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.
8. Metrics
   • Benchmarking your teams and applying growth plans.

To implement these principles effectively, consider engaging a Business Transformation Consultancy. They can guide your organization through the complexities of a Business Agility transformation, ensuring that you achieve sustainable and impactful results.

Watch Our Sydney Director, Rob Gaunt, talk through each of them here:
Enterprise Business Agility in 30 minutes.