Posted originally on September 16,2011
“Recession is a dreaded word”, my roommate said, when he returned from work in the evening.
“Yeah, it sure is a bad word, but it can lead to operational efficiency and productivity gains in any Organization, if proper procedures are applied,” I replied.
“You’re talking indirectly about cost cutting which is a result of the recession itself.”
“Well, these terms are linked to the dreaded word, but if you take a look at the graphs of Successful companies like, Toyota, GE, Walmart etc., you would find that those played an important role in their Successes.”
“Ok. How can you say that? My company is in the news lately as reports of potential firing of 5000 employees have grabbed the headlines.”
“Isn’t the same case happened two years ago, if I’m correct?”
“Yes, at that time around 7000 were laid off.”
“Ok, don’t you think something could have been done this time around?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I suppose this would need to be looked upon by CxOs, not a Project Manager like me.”
“I would say the change begins with you. Someone has rightly said, “The spark of a tiny idea can ignite dynamic innovation”. Do you agree?”
My roommate paused and said, “Yes, I do agree, what do you say?”
“Yes, I do see an environment of uncertainty where Clients are facing resource crunch, margin pressure and financial problems and, this demands that the Organizations change the way they work in order to survive and compete in this market. A true paradigm shift is required that would enable an Organization to sail through easily. There is bad news all around. But, cutting costs through layoffs as being seen, is not the way. The Organizations need to look at the current processes and methodologies in place in the system, fine tune and tweak it, adopt Agile methodologies to respond to the constant change, remove waste through Lean and then, they can strive to achieve customer delight. Cutting jobs is just a way to douse the fire but it is ineffective in the long run as people do move, but the existing processes which are the real reason of the mess in an Organization are not changed and leads to a vicious cycle. Cutting staff leads to reduced value to the client, which in turn leads to more revenue pressure and again, you cut costs through lay-offs keeping bureaucracy and existing processes in place.”
“Ok. The Agile Project Manager in you has again started speaking, how can you say the Agile ‘buzzword’ can help here?”
“Agile methods help find and remove waste, focus on value, learn from both successes and failures through reviews and retrospectives, debureaucratize the system by empowering the team, cross-functional training, collaboration and communication improve responsiveness and accountability, iteration and as a result, the Customer feels much in control of the project and the team.”
“Yes, it is a radical approach and, sometimes, an Organization is not ready for it.”
“I don’t believe if any Organization is ready for the economic downturn as well. Incorporating Agile is the best choice for Organizations in crisis. Iterations deliver working versions of the software at regular intervals of, 20-30 days, and this approach helps do better next time allowing everyone (Client and the team) to adapt to changing conditions very quickly. It improves the time to market and in the worst case scenario, if the project is suspended for some reason, the risk is minimized as the client may utilize the “done” increment of the software delivered to him. This type of flexibility is not provided by Waterfall approach.”
“You are talking about development projects, how can agile help in Maintenance/Application Support Projects.”
“Agile methodologies like Kanban or Scrum-ban is the best approach to follow for such projects, the visual-boards, reviews, retrospectives and stand-ups keep issues visible, empowers the team to take decisions and improve accountability and communication with Business teams, work in progress limits help divert the attention towards faulty business processes which need correction.”
“Whoa!” He exclaimed. “I would check if we’ve an agile practitioner in my Company, and see if we can start with something right away.”
“Yes, you should. Make the most of Agile in economic downturn and the results will be for everyone to see.”