Agile transformation for business teams within New Zealand organisations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Agile leverages long-held business principles such as customer centricity, quality, lean thinking and continuous improvement, and complements these with a new mindset based around innovation, risk-taking, speed, adaptability and iteration. This New Zealand (NZ) based study elaborates emerging theory that agile values and practices, originally the domain of technology, can scale effectively into non-technical teams leading to positive and transformational business outcomes. The study determined that exposure to agile is ubiquitous across NZ organisations and many non-technical workers already demonstrate agile values and practices informally, often in response to the failure of traditional ways of working. Very little resistance to agile was identified in business teams and new capability emerges as a natural and logical progression, fundamentally based around the value of people and teams, not technical processes or techniques. The greatest business challenges identified were lack of management support – often due to poor knowledge - and a reluctance by leaders to truly empower teams. Other key challenges were insufficient resourcing of cross functional squads, the time required to adjust to new ways of working, the challenge of shifting organisational culture and mindset, and insufficient training and communication. The single most important success factor is allowing agile to evolve slowly via a tailored and adaptive approach, followed by strong top-down leadership, creating an environment which encourages risk taking and learning from ‘failing fast’, building an organisational culture based on agility, and clarity of overall vision, strategy and objectives. The main benefits are faster delivery of increased customer value, improved product quality, and highly flexible and adaptive teams focused on short-term priorities and goals. Other key benefits include improved communication across the organisation, more effective collaboration between business and technical teams, and significant improvements in worker’s engagement and motivation. However, benefits are largely anecdotal and qualitative therefore further empirical and quantitative research is recommended to prove an explicit link between agile and the achievement of organisational strategies and goals

Leadership challenges of large-scale agile transformations

Compelled by the digital transformation revolution and the need for organisational agility in environments of high unpredictability, many organisations are striving to achieve organisational agility by adopting agile practices and agile ways of working, and undertaking enterprise-wide agile transformations. While studies have investigated the challenges such undertakings face, there is little academic research on the experiences of leaders involved in such agile transformations, leading to concerns that research is not addressing challenges faced in practice, and organisations are missing opportunities to provide necessary support. The research method adopted was qualitive and exploratory, limited to a case study of a single organisation in the South African banking sector undertaking an agile transformation. Thirteen in-depth interviews with leaders at senior levels within the organisation were conducted. The study found that leaders had to change leadership styles because of the agile transformation, away from command-and-control towards a combination of distributed, empowering, sharing and servant leadership styles. The study contributes to the academic literature on the leadership of agile transformations for large corporates, and provides organisations with valuable input to improve the success of such undertakings, and to identify the critical leadership attributes for the agile, new ways of working.Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2019.ls2020Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)MB

Adaptive games for learner and systems (bidirectional) learning

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Traditional learning environments are ineffective and inefficient and are failing to adequately equip students and employees with the knowledge and skills required in today’s jobs, let alone prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow. Given the rapidly changing landscapes of technologies and business models, organisations need to be flexible and adaptable to respond to, and even pre-empt future demands. One of the primary shortcomings of existing learning environments is their inflexibility and the ‘one size fits all’ approach followed. Serious games and game-based learning are widely recognised for their potential in providing more effective learning environments, especially when designed in a personalised, adaptive manner, and are explored in this dissertation. In addition to adapting to the individual traits and preferences of users, games are also highly context dependent. Whilst there is a great deal of literature and documented case studies of game-based learning, most focus only on the implementation of one particular game in a specific context. Whilst many existing game design models and approaches focus on achieving improved learning outcomes of learners, there is an opportunity to consider the impact of gameplay on other stakeholders and drive the active development of meta-skills in various stakeholders. Bidirectional learning, where learning simultaneously takes place in a two-way direction [295], has great potential and has, to date, not been incorporated in serious game design. By integrating different perspectives and variable scenarios, the dynamic personalisation of learning trajectories may be possible. Serious games offer a potential platform to aggregate learner behaviours and results, and use these to dynamically configure, adjust and tailor the game to individuals and contexts, ultimately providing a learning environment of improved quality, effectiveness and efficiency. In this dissertation, adaptive, bidirectional games are explored as a means to provide more effective and efficient learning environments for multiple stakeholders. Moreover, an architecture is presented to support the creation of such games for specific scenarios in a faster, more effective and more efficient manner. Following a research-by-design approach, the architecture is iteratively developed and simultaneously applied in four case studies. Experiences and learnings from each case study are infused into subsequent design iterations of the architecture. The architecture allows users to explore and exploit the solution space more deliberately and better understand the various functions and the interrelations between them. The flexible and modular structure of the architecture allows users to prioritise functionalities as required in the given scenario. Furthermore, the directional relations between functions can be interpreted and prioritised as needed given the specific context and requirements. The architecture incorporates various stakeholders in the design process, leading to greater transparency and better understanding throughout the process. More importantly, it emphasises bidirectional learning whereby different stakeholders can learn from gameplay and the aggregated results and behaviours of players.AFRIKAANS OPSOMMING: Tradisionele leeromgewings is oneffektief en ondoeltreffend en slaag nie daarin om studente en werknemers voldoende toe te rus met die kennis en vaardighede wat in die huidige werk benodig is nie, en nog minder vir toekomstige werk. Gegewe die vinnig veranderende landskappe van tegnologie¨e en sakemodelle, moet organisasies buigsaam en aanpasbaar wees om te reageer op, en selfs toekomstige behoeftes te voorkom. Een van die belangrikste tekortkominge van bestaande leeromgewings is die onbuigsaamheid daarvan asook die ‘een grootte pas almal’ benadering wat gevolg word. Ernstige speletjies en spelgebaseerde leer word oor die algemeen erken vir hul potensiaal om meer effektiewe leeromgewings te skep, veral as dit op ’n persoonlike, aanpasbare manier ontwerp is, en word in hierdie proefskrif ondersoek. Benewens die aanpassing by die individuele eienskappe en voorkeure van gebruikers, is speletjies ook baie kontekstafhanklik. Alhoewel daar baie literatuur en gedokumenteerde gevallestudies oor spelgebaseerde leer is, fokus die meeste daarvan slegs op die implementering van een spesifieke spel in ’n spesifieke konteks. Alhoewel baie bestaande spelontwerpmodelle en -benaderings op die verbeterde leeruitkomste van leerders focus, is daar ’n geleentheid om die impak van spel op ander belanghebbendes te oorweeg en die aktiewe ontwikkeling van metavaardighede by verskeie belanghebbendes te dryf. Tweerigtingleer, waar leer gelyktydig in twee rigtinge plaasvind [295], het ’n groot potensiaal en is huidig nog nie in ernstige spelontwerp opgeneem nie. Deur die integrasie van verskillende perspektiewe en veranderlike scenario’s, word die dinamiese personalisering van leertrajekte moontlik. Ernstige speletjies bied ’n moontlike platform om leerdergedrag en -resultate saam te voeg, en dit te gebruik om die spel dinamies te konfigureer en aan te pas by individue en kontekste, wat ’n leeromgewing van verbeterde kwaliteit, effektiwiteit en doeltreffendheid bied. In hierdie proefskrif word aanpasbare, tweerigting speletjies ondersoek as ’n manier om meer effektiewe en doeltreffende leeromgewings vir verskeie belanghebbendes te bied. Boonop word ’n argitektuur aangebied om die skep van sulke speletjies vir spesifieke scenario’s vinniger, meer effektief en doeltreffender te ondersteun. Na aanleiding van ’n navorsing-deur-ontwerp benadering word die argitektuur iteratief ontwikkel en gelyktydig toegepas in vier gevallestudies. Ervarings en leerstellings uit elke gevallestudie word ingesluit in die daaropvolgende ontwerp iterasies van die argitektuur. Met die argitektuur kan gebruikers die oplossingsruimte doelbewus ondersoek en benut, en die verskillende funksies en onderlinge verwantskappe tussen hulle beter verstaan. Die buigsame en modulˆere struktuur van die argitektuur stel gebruikers in staat om funksionaliteite te prioritiseer soos vereis in die gegewe scenario. Verder kan die rigtingverhoudinge tussen funksies ge¨ınterpreteer en geprioritiseer word soos benodig, gegewe die spesifieke konteks en vereistes. Die argitektuur bevat verskillende belanghebbendes in die ontwerpproses, wat lei tot verbeterde deursigtigheid en begrip gedurende die proses. Belangriker nog, dit beklemtoon tweerigtingleer waardeur verskillende belanghebbendes kan leer deur die spel en die saamgestelde resultate en gedrag van spelers.Doctora