AgileSHIFT – Everything you Need to Know

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What is Agileshift?

The need for lean ways of working is a fact of life for successful organizations. Advances in technology have made it easier than ever for companies to boost the value of their products, and services to get a leg up on the competition. Static competitors are no competitors at all, and when they start losing their clientele they usually have only their own rigidity to blame.

Utilizing ‘enterprise agility’ is all about equipping an organization with the ability to respond positively to a new impetus for change. However, this does not merely refer to changing up an IT or marketing strategy. In fact, the clue is in the name: an entire ‘enterprise’ needs to be prepared to instigate and support transformation, regardless of role function or seniority. Otherwise, not only will changes be needlessly delayed, but the benefits will also be limited in scope.

This is the purpose of ‘AgileSHIFT’: the new, lightweight framework developed by AXELOS. It aims to teach the importance of transformational change to anyone who can support or benefit from it. This helps users to create constructive and interconnected corporate ecosystems that enable agile mindsets on an ongoing basis. Students come to understand the importance of agile and lean methodologies, and can begin to support them regardless of department or their level of seniority.

However, AgileSHIFT is still a relatively new standard, and many potential students are unsure about its benefits. So, how does AgileSHIFT work, and what advantages could it offer to your business?

How Does AgileSHIFT Work?

AgileSHIFT is based on research from AXELOS’ global partners, including several world-leading organizations and local governments. As with other AXELOS products, AgileSHIFT is built to support organizations regardless of their size, location or industry. Indeed, the contributors came from a wide variety of prominent sectors, including retail and telecommunications. The framework itself was tested in locations across North America, the Middle East, APAC and Europe.

But how does it actually work? AgileSHIFT contains five principles and five practices aimed at guiding transformational change across an entire organization. It encourages users to adopt an iterative delivery method empowered by several roles, workflows, tools, competencies and techniques. These factors can be easily adapted in order to make them easier to integrate into an organization; a crucial advantage, given how widely AgileSHIFT must be applied in a business in order for its benefits to be fully appreciated.

Indeed, the most important factor to remember about how the AgileSHIFT framework works is that it is designed to be applied across an entire organization. Rather than just product owners or development teams, training should be provided for change enablers and influencers in departments such as:

  • Finance
  • HR
  • Operations
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Legal
  • IT
  • Customer Service
  • Product Management
  • Portfolio Management

Each and every relevant department in a business should be informed about the advantages of transformation, as well as the barriers to effective change and the benefits of reengineering traditional approaches. This will make them more open to utilizing AgileSHIFT and supporting its use elsewhere. In short, any roles which can benefit from or support agile ways of working should be made aware of AgileSHIFT, regardless of their department, seniority or function.

How can an AgileSHIFT Certification Help my Business?

These days, there is no shortage of opportunities for business owners to change and adapt. It might be that, thanks to changing technology, the expectations of your customers are simply evolving. Adapting in order to meet them will not only help your company to retain its customer and client base, but also to expand it.

There is also the ever-present danger of new competitors to consider, along with the increasingly international state of a number of industries and sectors. Delivering an inferior service because it is easier than making changes is a surefire way to lose your edge and reputation.

As anyone who is familiar with agile, lean and enterprise architecture will tell you, instigating major organizational change is much harder if you do not have the necessary support.

This leads to wasted resources and effort and causes increased disruption to essential services. This in turn creates additional problems for both an organization and its clients.

Every department head (at the very least) should be aware of the benefits of any intended transformations, as well as how they can help to enable them. The less isolated transformational teams are, the easier it will be for them to do their jobs at an enterprise level.

One of the biggest advantages of AgileSHIFT is that it can create this kind of environment in virtually any organization, regardless of its size, sector, location or industry. This can allow anyone to enjoy the benefits of using the framework, which include:

  • Being able to recognize and understand the necessity of transformational change
  • Utilizing lean and agile methodologies in order to start enjoying effective enterprise agility almost immediately
  • Help create an active and cooperative culture of organizational change
  • Upskilling employees to take charge of change within an organization

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