Question

Why is agility important in process design? (Min 500 words and provide an example)

Answer 1

Agile is a mindset which encourages development incrementally with short iterations so that the output is aligned with the changing business needs. Agile was developed for software development due to the challenges faced by traditional waterfall model.

If a process is not agile, it may face the following risks:-

• High risk of failure
• Rigid output/flow and resistant to change
• Late realization of value from delivery

To overcome these challenges, agile mindset was introduced. It focusses on iterative planning and development cycle with incremental improvements in ech cycle. This helps to incorporate changing business needs into the final output.

The agile methodology works on 4 values:-

1. Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

3. Customer collaboration over Contract Negotiation

4. Responding to change over following a plan

These values themselves elaborate the advantages of having an agile mindset while designing a process.

The objective of process design is to create an optimized and improved process to meet all the expectations relevant to performance and organizational strategic goals. However, the goals may change from time to time depending on dynamic business conditions. However, if the process design is rigid and it does not allow change, then the processes designed will not meet the business objectives as the goals have changed from before.

Here, agile method comes to the rescue. it helps the processes to be designed in incremental steps taking adequate feedback relevant to organizational goals and in the successive later phases, it can incorporate any change related to goals adjustment or changing business needs. It allows room for improvement even in the last stages of process design. Thus, agile methodology helps to designaccurate processes which welcome change and have the single focus of meeting organizational strategic objectives.

Some of the Agile softwares used for process design are SCRUM, Kanban, XP etc.

Example- Agile proces designs are extremely helpful for projects involving designing website, user interfaces where client requirements change from time to time and excessive rework is required. Here, traditional waterfall method will fall flat.