Embracing Modern Thinking, Doing, and Being for Future Success

As we navigate through this ever-changing VUCA environment, traditional methods of project management and software development are proving inadequate. Transitioning from legacy ways of thinking, working, and using tools like Microsoft Project and ProChain (PCE) to more agile mindsets, processes, and toolsets has become imperative.

Embracing Complexity and Uncertainty

There is no argument that software development and delivery are inherently complex and filled with uncertainties. Traditional Waterfall methodologies, best suited for simple projects with clear and unchanging requirements, fail to address these challenges. Unlike Waterfall, agile approaches thrive in complex to chaotic environments, allowing requirements and solutions to evolve through collaborative efforts. We use integrated agile disciplines from Scrum, Kanban, XP (Extreme Programming), Lean, UX (User Experience), DevSecOps, modern software engineering, and SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework).

Shifting from Project-to-Product Framework

The transition from a project to product-focused framework is a fundamental shift in our approach to software product development. Projects are temporary efforts with defined scopes, shifting timelines, and shared resources. In contrast, a product framework focuses on delivering continuous flow of value to users indefinitely. This shift enables long-lived, persistent teams aligned to dynamic tech-infused product solutions, which fosters increased ownership, innovation, speed, accountability, continuity, value, quality, and alignment to our objective of delivering high-quality products faster and better.

Moving Away from Big Requirements and Design Up Front

The days of extensive, detailed, upfront requirements gathering and design are behind us. Instead, we focus on high-level requirements captured as user stories, allowing development to emerge iteratively in each sprint. These user stories are elaborated, refined, and prioritized just in time (JIT) during recurring backlog refinement sessions. This approach allows for early and often feedback, adaptation based on empiricism, and ensures that the final product aligns with user needs and market demands, reducing rework. 

 An Integrated, End-to-End, Single-Source of Truth ALM Solution

Jira is a comprehensive application lifecycle management (ALM) solution, from ideation to production release. It supports product planning, requirement management, test management, traceability, defect management, code version control, eSignature workflow approvals, document management, and release management. This end-to-end capability makes Jira the preferred ALM toolset for modern software development within a single, integrated platform in highly regulated environments.

From Outputs to Outcomes 

The business case for establishing a PMO (Project Management Office) has often been the need to coordinate the delivery of numerous projects; however, organizations frequently fall into the trap of equating frantic busyness with meaningful impact. They become preoccupied with delivering tasks as outputs for ‘customers and stakeholders’ without necessarily creating real value outcomes. A PMO can exacerbate this problem, pushing organizations from frantic to manic activity. What is truly needed is more thoughtful consideration of what creates customer value and significantly less doing. For example, an organization may require a PMO to manage 70 key initiatives, but it’s unnecessary for the 14 that truly matter. Highly structured and rigid PMOs focused on outputs are no longer sufficient to achieve the agility and flexibility required in modern product development and delivery of outcomes. Instead, we have implemented Product and Delivery Frameworks that address value-based strategic portfolio management, cost-of-delay prioritization of initiatives, transparent line-of-sight to/from strategy and delivery, and aligning demand within capacity. 

Quality Built-In, Not Tested-In

A significant shift in our development process is the practice of building quality in. Testing is not quality, and we cannot test quality in. We no longer delay software validation until a phase at the end of a project. Instead, we build quality into every process, we test and validate products iteratively and incrementally every sprint, and we address defects immediately upon discovery. This ensures every sprint produces a potentially releasable/usable/valuable product increment in a production-like (mirror of production) environment, eliminating the need for validation phases or hardening sprints.

Continuous Delivery and Release on Demand

We practice continuous delivery (CD), where completed software is always in a releasable state and can be released quickly to production whenever the business needs it. This approach requires perpetual validation documentation, including design, requirement traceability matrices (RTM), and test summary reports (TSR), revised and able to be produced iteratively each sprint. Jira offers on-demand, automated export of Validation package artifacts and Release Notes complete with pre-filled meta-data saving time, reducing rework, and increasing accuracy.

Adapting Legacy Mindsets: Management 3.0 and Catalyst Leadership

Legacy mindsets, once the cornerstone of success, are now inadequate in today’s fast-paced world. Previous leadership action-logics of sensing and responding are insufficient for addressing the rapid market/business changes and technological disruptions we face today. To support this transformation, we need to consider adopting Management 3.0 practices. Management 3.0 is a modern approach to leadership and management, focusing on people as the most critical parts of the organization. It promotes principles such as delegation, empowerment, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Catalyst leadership, a key concept in Management 3.0, emphasizes leaders acting as facilitators, enabling their teams to find solutions and paths forward. This modern approach to management is essential for fostering an environment where agile practices can thrive.

Conclusion

Shifting our mindsets, embracing agile approaches, transitioning to better toolsets are crucial steps to accelerate and sustain our competitive lead. By moving away from legacy mindsets, practices, and toolsets, we can deliver better software faster, meet the market's increasing demand, and ensure our continued success in the future. Transformation is not just about adopting new practices and tools but fundamentally changing our ways of thinking, doing, and being to build a more resilient and responsive organization.