A student in one of my courses asked if I could help him develop a short and succinct way of “How Do You Go About Selling Agile? I think it’s an excellent topic and I told him I would write up something on that. Here it is…
How Do You Go About Selling Agile?
First, I don’t think that anyone should start with an objective of “selling Agile” to anyone. There are a lot of people out there who try to do that.
- I think it is fundamentally the wrong approach to try to convince someone to become more Agile.
- A better approach is to focus on what problem it will solve
Selling Agile – Fitting the Approach to the Business
I also very strongly believe that there is not a binary and mutually-exclusive choice between “Agile” and “Waterfall”. Rather than attempting to force-fit a business or project to one of those extremes, you have to go in the other direction and fit the methodology to the problem. It takes a lot more skill to do that but it definitely can be done. It requires:
1. A Broader Knowledge of Different Methodologies
You need a broader knowledge of different methodologies (both Agile or adaptive and plan-driven) including an ability to:
- See past many of the stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions that exist about what’s commonly referred to as “Agile” and “Waterfall”
- See those two approaches in a fresh, new perspective as being complementary to each other rather than competitive and
- Objectively understand the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches
2. Systems Thinking Approach
It also requires the ability to take a “systems thinking” approach to see those methodologies in a broader context beyond just a development process perspective of how they relate to an overall business and what problems they might solve
3. Understand the Principles Behind the Methodologies
In addition to all of that, you also need to understand the principles behind the methodologies at a deeper level. (Rather than just the mechanics of how to perform the methodology) That is essential to understand how to blend different, seemingly disparate methodologies together as needed to fit a given situation
Selling Agile – Taking a Business Perspective
If you’re trying to “sell” a manager on becoming more agile,
- He/she probably doesn’t have all of those skills and
- Is probably not willing to sit through a series of training courses to develop those skills either
So, how do you develop a relatively simple “elevator speech” to help someone understand why they should even consider becoming more Agile? Here are some thoughts on that:
Look at It From an Overall Business Perspective
First, you have to look at it from an overall business perspective , not from a more limited development process perspective. It’s very easy to get “tunnel vision” with Agile:
- We get so enthusiastic about the benefits of Agile from a development process perspective
- We assume that what’s good for the development process must be good for the company as a whole and that’s not necessarily the case
Rather than attempting to force-fit a company to an Agile approach:
- You may have to craft an approach that is more well-aligned with the primary success factors that drive the company’s business and
- Becoming more Agile may or may not be the most important factor in the company’s overall business success.
Fear of Agile
Second, you have to recognize that some companies are scared to death of Agile. They’re afraid of losing control and that fear is not totally unfounded if the Agile approach is not well-designed and managed.
- So, you may need to start off with more of a hybrid approach as an initial first step to demonstrate success rather than going full-bore into a complete corporate Agile transformation
- You also need to recognize that an Agile transformation can take a long time and demands a lot of patience and perseverance
Focus on Results
Finally, nothing sells better than results. Work on developing good results and that will sell itself.
Benefits of a More Agile Approach
It’s important to focus on the benefits. How will it help the business?
- Don’t just try to become Agile for the sake of becoming Agile
- Although the benefits of adopting a more agile approach will vary from one company to another, there are some general benefits that apply, to some extent, to any company
Here are the key general benefits I would focus on in my “elevator speech”…
Adaptability
The biggest and most general benefit is adaptability. Regardless of whatever other benefits an agile approach might provide,
- No one is likely to argue that there’s a big advantage in being able to tailor an approach to fit a project and a business rather than
- Force-fitting all projects to a traditional, plan-driven project management approach
Time-to-Market
Probably the next most important general benefit is time-to-market. An Agile approach is not necessarily the fastest but it has some significant advantages:
- Prioritizing requirements and delivering functionality incrementally can significantly accelerate progress
- A more streamlined planning process can also accelerate the startup of a project
- Reduction of unnecessary overhead will improve efficiency and throughput
Reduced Costs
Another big factor is reduced costs associated with reducing unnecessary overhead in projects. This is another one that doesn’t require adopting a full Agile development approach to achieve. All it requires is:
- Taking a hard look at some of the documentation and other artifacts and controls used in a project and
- Deciding whether they really produce value or not and who they produce value for.
Customer Satisfaction
A big selling point of Agile is the improved customer satisfaction from having a customer directly engaged in the project to ensure that the project really solves their business problem and provides an appropriate level of value to them
Employee Productivity and Morale
Improved employee productivity and morale is a result of more empowered teams
Organizational Synergy
Finally, a major benefit of an Agile approach is the organizational synergy that results from the cross-functional collaboration of an Agile approach. Having everyone in the organization work together in a spirit of trust and partnership towards some overall goals can have a very powerful impact.
Overall Summary
The key point to emphasize is that all of these are relatively tangible benefits that can be realized, to some extent, on any project simply by using more of an “Agile Mindset”. It doesn’t necessarily require adopting a full-blown Agile approach like Scrum and/or risk losing control of your business to get some of these benefits.
Years ago when I was a Program Manager in a large computer company, part of the training to become a Program Manager was a course called “Solution Selling” which was basically a consultative approach to “selling”. It created a different approach to “selling”
- Instead of going in to a client to sell them something like “Agile”, the “solution selling” approach is to go in to the customer and to do a lot active listening to understand their problem before attempting to sell any solution
- I think that’s a good approach with Agile also. There are people out there who get overly-zealous about “selling” Agile to the extent that “Agile” becomes a solution to any problem you might have. That’s the wrong approach, in my opinion.
Related Articles
Check out the following related articles on “Agile Transformation”:
- Agile Change Management – Why Is It important?
- How Do You Go About Selling Agile?
- Business Process Reengineering and Agile Transformation
- Enterprise-level Agile Implementation
- Developing an Agile Company Culture
- Agile and Corporate Culture – How Do You Make it Work?
Additional Resources
Resources for Agile Project Management Online Training.