Understanding the structured processes followed by organisations prior to engaging in agile processes: A South African Perspective

There appears to be a lack of knowledge on the phases South African (SA) organisations go through while adopting agile methods. As a means to address this gap, this study uncovered empirical evidence on the phases SA organisations go through whilst adopting agile methods as well as the disparities between agile prescriptions and the way SA organisations actually implement agile methods. The data collected using a case study approach was analysed through the lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The results reveal that there is no structured process for adopting agile methods and organisations go through various phases in their attempts to adopt agile methods. During the various phases, organisations face challenges which are culture as well as people related. Through this study South African practitioners could now be aware that before adopting an agile methodology, there has to be a common understanding of the problems at hand and the envisioned solution. The findings also inform aspiring adopters in South Africa that adoption of the methods does not have to be as prescribed. They are free to adopt only those aspects the organisations need most

An agile portfolio management model for the insurance sector: the APMI model

Nowadays, the increasing uncertainty and instability make it crucial for traditional companies to become more agile and able to act fast on consumer needs and expectations. Therefore, many insurance companies are seeking to increasingly adopt Agile practices to become more effective, faster, and leaner in their critical processes. On the other hand, several companies are strengthening their planning methodologies by implementing Portfolio Management models. These models enable them to manage their initiatives in a more integrated and efficient manner that is strategically aligned, minimizes complexity, and provides higher flexibility when responding to uncertainty. Given the limited scientific knowledge in combining Agile and Portfolio Management (PfM), particularly in the insurance industry, a new Agile Portfolio Management (APfM) model, the APMI – Agile Portfolio Management for insurers was designed and tested, showing how Agile and PfM international practices can be conciliated with current insurance industry-specific practices. Results revealed a high satisfaction level with the model implementation, indicating that the proposed model can foster a greater strategic alignment, increase the organization’s strategic focus, promote transversal alignment and visibility, and support the organization’s capacity coordination

The Impact of Customer Collaboration on Agile Product Development Success in Technology Startups Within the Pacific Northwest

While agile software development is being adopted in more organizations recently, many products using the methodology are still failing in the market due to inadequate customer collaboration despite the purported benefits. Within start-ups, where speed and early market penetration can be the death or success of a company, understanding if using agile software development including adequate customer collaboration makes a significant difference is important. A study which investigates the impact of including customer collaboration in the agile product development process could uncover whether or not a product is successful within technology focused start-up’s in the Pacific Northwest. This research could allow technology focused start-ups to learn how to emulate success and avoid pitfalls using agile software development to create better, more transformative products for the world. The research question is: how does the inclusion of customer collaboration in the agile product development process by product owners impact the overall success of the product within Pacific Northwest technology start-up companies? This concept paper includes information on the nature of the study, the significance, relationship to cognate, a literature review beginning, and a significant amount of research related to the hypothesis

An agile portfolio management model for the insurance sector: the APMI model

Nowadays, the increasing uncertainty and instability make it crucial for traditional companies to become more agile and able to act fast on consumer needs and expectations. Therefore, many insurance companies are seeking to increasingly adopt Agile practices to become more effective, faster, and leaner in their critical processes. On the other hand, several companies are strengthening their planning methodologies by implementing Portfolio Management models. These models enable them to manage their initiatives in a more integrated and efficient manner that is strategically aligned, minimizes complexity, and provides higher flexibility when responding to uncertainty. Given the limited scientific knowledge in combining Agile and Portfolio Management (PfM), particularly in the insurance industry, a new Agile Portfolio Management (APfM) model, the APMI – Agile Portfolio Management for insurers was designed and tested, showing how Agile and PfM international practices can be conciliated with current insurance industry-specific practices. Results revealed a high satisfaction level with the model implementation, indicating that the proposed model can foster a greater strategic alignment, increase the organization’s strategic focus, promote transversal alignment and visibility, and support the organization’s capacity coordination

ORGANIZING FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD: A PATHWAY TOWARDS THE AGILE MARKETING CAPABILITY

The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to explain how agility intersects in the field of marketing capabilities, in order to deepen the understanding about a new marketing capability: the Agile Marketing Capability. My dissertation consists of three papers. The first paper inquires how the Agile Marketing Capability can be formally theorized and conceptualized, identifying its key theorizing elements and putting the basis for its further exploration and analysis. The outcomes of this first study identify the core dimensions (or constructs) of the Agile Marketing Capability, advance a holistic theoretical model, and discuss the underlying constructs and relationships. With this first conceptualization of a marketing-focused capability of agility, I start outlining a new path of marketing capabilities, seeking to redefine marketing capabilities by learning more about Agile Marketing implementation. Thus, I lay the terrain for future exploration and forecast of this topic, and enrich the debate on the opportunity to integrate agile principles into marketing studies, and ultimately impact marketing capabilities. The second paper provides an initial empirical investigation of agile capability in marketing field, exploring its main defining features and thus elaborating some key theoretical and empirical dimensions which may characterize and compose the Agile Marketing Capability. The outcomes of this second study identify and organize the key theoretical concepts and dimensions of the Agile Marketing Capability in a theoretical framework. To summarize study results I also formulate some propositions, which could stimulate future theoretical and empirical research towards this topic. The findings of this research considerably advance extant knowledge on capabilities greater aligned with digital transformation challenges, which is a topic still at an early stage in current literature. Specifically, the analysis carried out in the second paper improves the understanding on agility in digital and international marketing settings, contributing to extend dynamic capabilities and marketing capabilities literature. In the meantime, the framework and propositions of this study, as well as the empirical findings, contribute to explain what strategic actions are needed to foster marketing agility, thus pursuing and implementing an Agile Marketing Capability. The third and final paper extends the body of knowledge of agile capabilities in marketing field by looking at how different organizations pursue and implement the Agile Marketing Capability. The outcomes of this third study deepen the conceptualization and definition of the Agile Marketing Capability dimensions, proposing a four-stage Agile Marketing Capability maturity framework. The framework provides key actions, activities and behaviours organized in progressive maturity levels to enable organizations to assess and improve their capabilities in Agile Marketing implementation. The findings of this work contribute to deepen the body of knowledge on marketing capabilities and agility research streams, explaining the benefits that could derive from employing agile approaches and capabilities in marketing, and how their employment actually may enhance organizations’ extant marketing capabilities, particularly in turbulent and fast-changing contexts. Notably, the analysis performed in this third study sheds light on progressive behaviors and actions representative of different maturity levels in the development and management of the Agile Marketing Capability. The maturity framework proposed in this paper and the empirical findings clarify to managers and practitioners how to assess current maturity level in the development of such capability, understand potential improvement actions, and, thus, achieve higher levels of performance. Briefly, it provides useful guidelines for organizations to become more agile in their marketing capabilities

Building an Agile Enterprise: Case OP Financial Group - OP Oulu

The fundamental question in the field of strategic management is how organizations can achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Achieving such an ambitious goal has become even more difficult in the modern world of innovation-based competition. Moreover, past success does not guarantee success in the future, which is why companies need to embrace a dual transformation towards focusing on changing customer needs and other strategic interventions. Organizations need to become adaptive and ambidextrous. The enterprise agile framework is gaining popularity and is proposed as a comprehensive answer to the question of building sustainable competitive advantage by many managers in organizations across industries. Agile teams were originally designed for use in small teams and projects, but their potential benefits have made them attractive for adoption at scale. However, adopting agile at scale is complicated. Doing so also means transforming strategy work from long-term planning to a continuous process. Enterprise agile is designed to increase manoeuvrability at the entire spectrum of the organization’s activities, which supports a continuous strategy process. A theoretical representation of the agile operational model is presented. As the enterprise agile framework does not yet have an intellectual home in academic research, the concept of dynamic capabilities is proposed as a theoretical basis as it is well-researched and rooted in the research on adaptive and innovative organizations. Other concepts of interest in this thesis are innovation strategies, business model innovation, technological innovation and a specific dynamic capability, also a well-researched construct, called absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity emphasizes organizational learning capability which helps firms assimilate and implement new technologies, practices and processes. The empirical section of the thesis studies an independent branch of the largest financial services corporation in Finland. A synthesis between theory and research suggests that organizational learning capability manifests in absorptive capacity, which has comprehensive potential to affect the organization’s ability to implement innovative managerial practices, such as enterprise agile. The enterprise agile framework is found to have potential to broadly strengthen several types of dynamic capabilities, which are at the heart of the organization’s ability to create and sustain competitive advantage. The empirical results further suggest that agile can be divided between concrete agile working methods and broader agile working techniques, which help conceptualize and compartmentalize the broader enterprise agile framework

Study of DataOps as a concept for Aker BP to enable data-driven assets.

The oil and gas industry have faced many obstacles over the decades and in recent years the industry has had to endure increased pressure from the market, a global crisis caused by the coronavirus and oil prices reaching an all time low. Low oil prices stimulate a reaction from the industry having to do more with less, finding new ways of working and exploring previously untapped opportunities for improvement through digitalization. Aker BP aim to be at the forefront of digitizing the exploration and production (E&P) industry and their digital transformation is more than just technology. Aker BP aim to build digital capabilities, develop digital mind sets and implement new ways of working where decisions are driven by data. The company show a willingness to experiment with and develop new technologies, however data management efforts are increasing as digitalization projects are realised from Aker BP’s digital lab. An investment into data management is therefore required to allow for automation over time and ensure the right competence within Aker BP. In collaboration with Aker BP, this thesis investigates the importance of an organization wide data management and data governance strategy aligned with business objectives and how the emerging concept of DataOps can enable Aker BP’s ambitions of becoming a data-driven company. DataOps is an emerging approach advocated by data practitioners to cater to the challenges in data analytics projects. The thesis examine how Aker BP work with data in their organization today through interviews and discussions with different parts of the organization and assess how the principles and concepts of DataOps can be applied. To answer this, a DataOps maturity model has been developed and Aker BP’s ways of working evaluated by using the model. The principles and concepts of DataOps have then been considered and an implementation plan and critical success factors for succeeding with DataOps or maturing data management and data governance efforts are presented. The thesis focuses on the principle that DataOps’ goal is to liberate data from its sources to its consumers and proposes the necessary steps to embark on the DataOps journey and maturing data management within the company. The research show that data management efforts are limited and based on ad-hoc needs and fast changing priorities. The pressure on the data management function to verify, clean, liberate, analyse and advise on data is growing and the participants in the research emphasize the need for change. Based on the DataOps maturity model developed, the steps required to increase Aker BP’s DataOps maturity are identified. Further research should include implementation of the identified steps and investigate the efforts to further automating business processes and maturing Aker BP’s ability to work with data