Part 4 in a 4-part series. This post covers responding to change. Part 1 is posted at this link, Part 2 is posted at this link, and Part 3 is posted at this link.
Have you ever felt stuck? To the point, where there didn’t seem to be any optimal choices, only suboptimal ones? Me, too.
Often, we want to plan our way out of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). We want to know what we’re doing. As well, how we’re going to get it done.
When building a new product or service, we can’t plan for how our clients, customers, markets, or stakeholders will respond to what we intend to offer. This brings us to the final Agile Value.
The fourth value:
Manifesto for Agile Software Development
A toolbox for responding to change
Planning is still essential. Plans help people organize around work. But we cannot afford to waste energy, money, and time once plans are outmoded.
Ideally, we plan in a way that allows us to respond to emergence. As well, we have a toolbox that helps us be more effective in working through VUCA.
This is where The Flow System (TFS) is powerful.
The TFS is like a boat with a competent crew. They have a compass, map, and skills to navigate challenging seas. They are always planning their voyage from one leg to the next, while responding to change.
TFS equips organizations with the tools that include approaches, methods, and techniques that enable and scaffold change. Additionally, all tools have utility, but some limits need to be identified before using them.
Think of a hammer, nails, and screws. Using a hammer to pound nails works, but not so much for the screws. The concept in operation here is bounded applicability. Choosing the right tool for the right job.
It is equally as important to know how to connect tools for a multiplying effect within an underlying context. This helps to curb the enthusiasm for prescribing a common framework and shifting the organizational design to all teams.
Another way to frame this might be TFS is enterprise-level DevOps! Like DevOps, TFS eliminates, mitigates, and resolves constraints to optimize the flow of value through the entire organizational system. Based on where business is today, TFS should be a part of future conversations.
To conclude, TFS aligns with Agile Value #4.
Value 1, Value 2, Value 3, Value 4