Robust decision making for agile systems development Part 1: exploring the paradigm

The need for agility in operational systems within the defence enterprise and procurement domains has been identified by many authors, and over time, there have been a number of initiatives and programmes that have sought to identify the nature of agility, and the means by which it can be defined and employed within individual cases and scenarios. These have identified impediments to the successful realization of agile practices and methods, particularly the resilience of agile decision making throughout the conceptual understanding, design and implementation of the operational system. To further investigate the extent to which this process can be implemented in a robust and reliable manner, Cranfield University created the ‘Robust Enterprise-based Approach for Agility in Capability Through-life (REA2CT)’ framework, which provides a number of functional steps to institute a systems development lifecycle approach to producing agile solutions for use in networked systems and systems-of-systems. This paper briefly examines the Customer Need (CN) for the enterprise-based delivery of system (of systems) agility into the operational domain. Axiomatic Design (AD) theory is used to describe the REA2CT framework, identifying Functional Requirements (FRs) which might satisfy the CN for agility. Initial Design Parameters (DPs) are proposed to satisfy the FRs

Building a boundaryless manufacturing organisation through HITOP method

There is little empirical research to support the allegation that ‘leagile’ manufacturing organisations thrive in hostile environments, nor has it been demonstrated that organisation processes (referred to as enablers) actually support ‘leagile’ performance. This study tests the statistical significance of five selected HITOP (highly integrated technology, organisation and people) ‘leagile’ enablers. This was accomplished by using a mail survey instrument to measure the presence of ‘leagile enablers’ in a sample of companies taken from best factory award winners in UK, US and Japan. [Continues.

A Lean Enterprise Architecture Approach as an Enabler for Organizational Agility : Case: Metso Outotec

In the era where delivery speed is perceived more important than IT landscape integration, consistency and long-term planning, different architectural approaches have become important considerations of information systems management. Moreover, recent studies have shown that the need for a holistic EA is often overlooked, when organizations try to apply agile development models, which may lead to several problems, such as technical debt, redundant rework, inconsistent communication, decentralized and siloed architecture design, unsustainable architecture, and inconsistence in coding style. Hence, with the growing deployment of scaling agile methods there is a need for purpose-fit approaches to integrate EA frameworks to enable organization agility while maintaining long-term vision. This study aims to explore how EA activities are put into practices in a company deploying large-scale agile development methods – namely EA deliverables, EA benefits, EA concerns and EA enablers. In total, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted from a case company, and an analysis was done using the Gioia method. As a result, EA deliverables (business objective deliverables, intentional architecture deliverables, and emergent design deliverables), EA benefits (organizational agility and organizational robustness), EA concerns (immaturity, disengagement, urgency, and resistance and anti-patterns), and EA enablers (communication and collaboration, Lean EA, and EA culture) were identified. The enterprise architecture practices used by the case company were in line with the guidelines and best practices recommended by the literature and industry experts. Moreover, a literature review provided some theoretical constructs and suggestions, namely the Lean EA development (LEAD) method and the design principles of architectural thinking for supporting organizational agility, which can be recommended to be applied by the case company or any other organization scaling agile

Determining information systems contribution to manufacturing agility for SME's in dynamic business environments

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Since the concept of agile manufacturing was coined in the early nineties, the study of the contribution of information systems to agility has lacked a thorough analysis. Information systems have been labelled in the academic literature as critical, key and important in achieving and supporting agility. On the other hand, there is a large number of documented cases where IS have failed to deliver expected benefits. The aim of this study has been to determine the contribution of information systems to manufacturing agility. This study required the development of a research survey with the purpose of testing seven IT/IS proficiency characteristics of agility, three characteristics of a dynamic business environment and the type of IS applications used in manufacturing organisations. The analysis of the survey suggested that the business environment does not exert great influence on the IT/IS proficiency characteristics; also no association was found with the use of a specific type of manufacturing IS and the IT/IS proficiency characteristics. The results of the analysis of the survey were further expanded in a multiple case-study. Profitable SMEs with some agile processes in place participated in a multiple case-study that covered the agility of manufacturing and other business process, business and IT strategies, and skills and expertise of employees affecting the realisation of benefits of IS. The study revealed that information systems are neither the most important, the most overwhelming, the most difficult part of the equation to achieve agility nor are they principal enablers of manufacturing. Identified principal enablers of agile manufacturing include providing training to employees, right attitude of workforce towards change, having a flexible manufacturing base and people's knowledge and skills. Moreover, the use of low performing information systems was not an impediment to moving towards agility. The results of the multiple case-study tend to indicate that information systems play a more significant role in enhancing agility once principal enablers have been implemented. Certainly, IS may be required to support manufacturing agility but that information systems are not sufficient to achieve it. The study revealed that skills and expertise of people were used as means to overcome the problems and shortcomings generated by low performing IS. A new taxonomy of enablers of agility has been defined, identifying IS as second-order enablers of agility. Also, a proposed new framework has considered the adoption of an IT strategy to influencing a business strategy as a mean of enhancing the agility of business processes already achieved through the implementation of principal enablers

Role of Time in Agile Supply Chain

Nowadays, in turbulent and violate global markets an Agile Supply Chain (ASC) network is frequently considered as a dominant competitive advantage for survival. To achieve the competitive advantage, companies must align with suppliers and customers to streamline operations, as well as agility beyond individual companies. There are many definitions and models about agile supply chain and most of them have emphasized on capabilities and enablers, and their sub attributes, as two critical factors, but regardless of time and its effect on the main attributes. This paper tries to present the role of time on predicting the agility of supply chain, by studying effect of intervention time on enablers and eventually predict the progress trend of agility in supply chain. To gain this end we use ANFIS output to assess agility and compare the effects of agile enablers in period of time on capabilities in Iran Khodro manufacture. This recognition helps managers to consider time as leverage factor and focus on this factor to enhance existent agility level and achievement the desired one

Development of an Enhanced Agility Assessment Model for Legacy Information System

Deciding the moment to end the lifecycle of an information system are often not exhaustively studied. It is essential for an organisation to know when to end the life cycle of their legacy information system when it is no longer able to perform and comply with the changes the organization desires. Prolonging the length of an information system lifecycle could lead to a reduction in software cost. Most of the various metrics presented in literatures on agility measurement, such as Cost, Time, Robustness and Scope of changes (CTRS) and Simplicity, Speed and Scope of changes (3S) and the researchers evaluation methods, e.g., Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Mathematics Analytic are qualitative and usually need to be evaluated by domain experts subjectively. This study therefore developed an enhanced agility assessment model to measure legacy information system quantitatively with the agility factors: Speed, Robustness and Complexity in an educational institution. The adoption of a quantitative metrics methodology will lead to an accurate measurement of the student information system. A stand-alone online assessment system based on agility factors and satisfying the maximum metrics benchmark requirements was used for the model implementation. The results were: Complexity of the largest module=96, Robustness=547.5 hours and Speed 0.5 minutes. The complexity of the module that exceeded 20 can be fixed by reducing the control constructs of the source code modules into submodules, with each not greater than 20. The results obtained indicated that the student information system was still agile. Thus, management should continue with the system.    &nbsp

Agile organisations – features and agility enablers

Building organisations with a high degree of agility is becoming a more and more relevant and key issue as the dynamicity and unpredictability of the environment grow. A number of studies offer lists of characteristics outlining the profile of an agile organisation. The influence of numerous organisational resources and managerial practices for enhancing agility is focused upon by researchers as well. By reviewing and comparatively analysing the features of agile organisations as formulated by other researchers, the aim of this article is to outline the main features of agile organisations, as well as differentiate the markers of agility from the factors and practices which enable it. The role of knowledge in achieving agility is emphasised and centred around in the logical framework which describes the link between agility enablers and agility features. Thus, the necessity to acquire and develop knowledge and employ it in achieving agility justifies the choice of practices and resources pointed out in this article as key agility enablers

FROM DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Documents circulating in paper form are increasingly being substituted by itselectronic equivalent in the modern office today so that any stored document can be retrievedwhenever needed later on. The office worker is already burdened with information overload, soeffective and effcient retrieval facilities become an important factor affecting worker productivity. The key thrust of this article is to analyse the benefits and importance of interaction betweendocument management and knowledge management. Information stored in text-based documentsrepresents a valuable repository for both the individual worker and the enterprise as a whole and ithas to be tapped into as part of the knowledge generation process.document management, knowledge management, Information and communication technologies

Organizational agility in the public sector: A case study of the Office of the Auditor General of Norway

This master thesis explores organizational agility in the public sector through a case study of a state agency. Organizational agility is as a learned, permanently-available dynamic capability that can be performed quickly and efficiently to the degree necessary, and whenever needed, to increase business performance in a volatile market environment. Although the definition includes a focus on a volatile market environment and business performance, many public organizations strive for agility. This master thesis investigates whether the concept of organizational agility could be a good fit for the public sector, even without obvious competitors and profit focus. A literature review was conducted to get an overview of previous research on organizational agility within the public sector. This resulted in a conceptual model, which forms the theoretical lens for this study. The model includes three main elements: drivers (external and internal), organizational agility (agility enablers and agile capabilities) and organizational performance. The topic is explored through a case study of the Office of the Auditor General of Norway (OAGN) and their innovation lab. The research question is: How can an innovation lab influence organizational agility the public sector? Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted, and eight meetings were observed by the researcher. Strategic documents were analyzed to obtain an understanding of organizational performance. The empirical results show both external and internal agility drivers in the OAGN. The study identified some challenges in the organization, such as the organizational culture, communication style, the availability of technology, the development of competence for the future, and autonomy versus alignment. The challenges are mapped to the agile capabilities suggested by previous research. Competence, flexibility and courage are identified capabilities in the innovation lab. The innovation lab has indeed increased the organization’s awareness about new technology trends, which is seen as the sensing part of the responsiveness capability. The innovation lab improves the organization’s ability to pursue possibilities provided by new technology. Although, being agile is not the goal, a holistic view of agility can help organizations reach their strategic goals and the social mission. Measuring and monitoring the performance provide management with the necessary insight to adjust the enablers and improve the capabilities to tackle changes in the organization’s environment. This study provides insight into practice and can be of inspiration for other state agencies striving for agility. An adjusted conceptual model for organizational agility in the public sector is suggested. The model should be challenged and further tested in other cases and through other research approaches. Key words: organizational agility, public sector, audit, innovation la

Structures and Technologies for Stepwise Implementation of Adaptive Supply Chain

Falling margins, globalization, and accelerating innovation cycles are forcing businesses to switch from traditional (linear and sequential) supply chains to adaptive supply chain that possess the flexibility needed to respond to the environment in real time. As adaptive supply chains are large and complex, they are built step-wise using structures; structures are a well-defined portion of the system, with carefully defined inputs, outputs, and functions. In addition, the structures must follow common standards, based on common architecture for seamless integration with the rest of the components. In this paper, first, we present the problem of implementing a new iterative-based distribution chain that has four distinctive modules. Second, we present a survey of commonly used structures in some of the wellknown modern supply chain solutions (e.g. stages in SAP, layers in HP Real Time Supply Chain, modules in i2 Six/IBM) is presented. Third, by going through the structures, we present an optimal solution for implementation of the adaptive distribution chain