Measuring Agility of Organizations – A Comprehensive Agility Measurement Tool (CAMT)

Since “Agility” is ability to respond to unpredictable changes with quick response and profitability, it is not industry specific. This “not industry specific” nature of agility makes it hard to assess and measure it on a fixed scale. Measurement of agility of an enterprise has been a major topic of research since inception of agility in 1991. Though some methods have been developed to measure agility, they mainly remain tied to manufacturing industry. As agility is present in all the industries, comprehensive tool to measure it is a necessity in order to determine responsiveness of an enterprise to external turbulences. Comprehensive Agility Measurement Tool (CAMT) measures agility on the scale of 1-5; 1 being least agile and 5 being highly agile. This tool captures agility using 10 agility enablers and thus also points out areas lacking agility. Use of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) gives flexibility to this tool and also solves the problem of changing priorities of agility enablers from enterprise to enterprise. This paper describes methodology used to develop Comprehensive Agility Measurement Tool. CAMT considers most important factor responsible for agility – human resource management and uses training of employees, attrition rate and percent increase in yearly profit to measure human resource agility and visionary leadership

A thorough investigation of Cloud Computing: Sustainability Modelling and Enterprise Portability for Industry and Academia

Cloud Computing (CC) has transformed the way many organisations work. It offers a variety of benefits including cost-saving, agility, efficiency, resource consolidation, business opportunities and green IT. This brings technical and business challenges in many organisations. To address increasing requirements from Industry and Academia, there are two major areas need to be addressed: (i) the organisational sustainability and measurement of Return on Investment (ROI); and (ii) enterprise portability, so that the entire applications and services can moved from desktops to clouds, and between different clouds, with ease and convenience

A thorough investigation of cloud computing: sustainability modelling and enterprise portability for industry and academia

Cloud Computing (CC) has transformed the way many organisations work. It offers a variety of benefits including cost-saving, agility, efficiency, resource consolidation, business opportunities and green IT. This brings technical and business challenges in many organisations. To address increasing requirements from Industry and Academia, there are two major areas need to be addressed: (i) the organisational sustainability and measurement of Return on Investment (ROI); and (ii) enterprise portability, so that the entire applications and services can moved from desktops to clouds, and between different clouds, with ease and convenience

IS Architecture Characteristics as a Measure of IT Agility

As markets change, business models alter and technology evolves information systems need to change. The ability and speedof change in information systems are crucial success factors for the success of the business itself. We call this IT Agility.IT Agility depends on many internal and external factors of the enterprise and can be achieved through reactive and proactiveactions. In this paper the focus is on the information systems architecture as a main proactive contributor to IT Agility.As measurement is essential for the management of IT Agility a framework is suggested that quantitatively evaluates themain influencing factors of information systems architecture on IT Agility (coupling, redundancy, complexity andparameterization). Results from a real-world application show the ability of the framework to identify fields for improvementin IT Agility in the information systems architecture of enterprises

A framework for the development and measurement of agile enterprise architecture

Enterprise architecture is the high-level design of the entire business, facilitated by enterprise architects. "Agile enterprise architecture" is the term used in enterprise architecture to describe an architecture that caters for future unknowns, enabling change to occur rapidly without undue resource utilization, yet in a controlled manner and with minimal adverse impact. Some enterprise architects still use outdated, rigid approaches to enterprise architecture which are incompatible with today‟s business environment. In addition, there is limited research into methods that can be applied to measure the agility of enterprise architecture. The current environment is such that there is a need for a more agile approach to developing and measuring enterprise architecture. This work will lead to the creation of a Framework for The Development and Measurement of Agile Enterprise Architecture. In support of the main goal of the development of the framework, a literature review will be conducted focusing on the necessary sub-goals of the research. The first sub-goal of the literature review is to develop a comprehensive definition for enterprise architecture (referred to as EA), as well as discover how it is currently practiced. Thereafter, the literature review will investigate a comprehensive definition for agility and research why it is emerging as a critical topic. The next chapter of the literature review will research how agility fits within the context of EA, uncovering a comprehensive definition for agile EA and the best practices in agile EA development. The final chapter of the literature review will investigate suitable measurement techniques that can be used to assess the level of agility of EA. On completion of the literature review, a preliminary framework will be created using the most important contributions from the literature. An empirical study will be conducted to explore the definitions for EA, agility, agile EA, the methods to measure the agility of EA and the concepts for the development of agile EA summarised in the preliminary framework. Data analysis follows an interpretive and qualitative approach based on four case studies through interviews with systems experts in four South African organizations in one province. Each interviewee was interviewed once. The initial interview with a Principal Consultant on Enterprise Strategy Consulting at organisation # 1 formed the basis of an exploratory study; the results of which were used to refine the research instrument and preliminary framework. Thereafter, a more rigorous empirical study focused on interviews with the Chief Architect, Senior Manager in Advisory Services and an Enterprise Architect at organizations 2, 3 and 4 respectively was conducted. The research follows an inductive approach to capture the interpretive experiences of participants and develop theoretical propositions from them. Following the exploratory pilot study it became necessary to make changes to the preliminary framework and initial survey instrument created. Thereafter, the empirical study consisting of the remaining three cases was conducted to test the important aspects of the framework and literature definitions. The analysis of the results of the empirical study prompted further changes to the theoretical framework and definitions created. The interviews conducted with each of the organizations confirmed the factors for agile EA development as well as the effectiveness of the definitions created in the literature review. The research uncovered that the need for a more agile approach to developing EA and a way to measure the level of agility of EA has become more and more significant in organizations. This begins with a better understanding of EA, agility, how agility fits within the context of EA, as well as appropriate methods to measure agility

Towards a Maturity Model to Measure Organizational Agility in the Software and IT Services Industry

Agile software development methods reduce project costs and development time by simultaneously enhancing quality. But despite these advantages, agile principles are rarely adopted by the whole organization. In fact, it seems difficult to describe what distinguishes an agile organization from another. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to gain an understanding what factors constitute agility at an enterprise level and to develop a maturity model as measurement tool. To fulfill this aim, the thesis as based on a multi-paradigmatic approach combining behavioral and design science and utilizes a pluralistic set of research methods belonging to both paradigms. A comprehensive analysis of agility-related frameworks showed that despite partial similarity there is no consensus about what constitutes an “agile organization”. Hence, the thesis identified the structure to be found behind the concept of organizational agility using an exploratory research approach. A survey among organizations in the software and IT services industry was conducted and showed that organizational agility can be described using six interrelated factors that can be further aggregated into the three basic dimensions of “Agility Prerequisites,” “Agility of People,” and “Structures Enhancing Agility.” Based on these results, the Organizational Agility Maturity Model has been developed providing a theoretically and empirically grounded structure of organizational agility supporting the efforts of developing a common understanding of the concept. The application of the maturity model furthermore creates useful benefits for organizations and underscores the strategic character of organizational agility. It generates an awareness about the complexity of organizational agility. Furthermore, it may serve as a reference frame to implement a systematic and well-directed approach for improvements and continuous assessment of actions taken

Управління міжнародним бізнесом: Agility Journey для високотехнологічних компаній

The purpose of the article is the development of recommendations for the business maturity determination and measurement in the implementation of the agile approach for high-tech companies. Methods of analysis of documents, observation, personal and in-depth interviews, case studies have been used in the research. The findings of the research: Business Agility Journey has been suggested for defining the state of the maturity of the company and conducting express diagnostics of agility. Agile Project Management Journey has been developed for the identification of weaknesses by the companies in the path to agility, as well as for the determination of events for the transition from the traditional to the agile approach. Personal Agility Checklist has been designed for testing the soft skills of employees for the presence of the agile mindset. Research limitations include the study of the maturity of companies in the IT industry. Practical implications are based on the use of suggested Agility Journeys in defining the state of maturity and main problems on the transition path. Also, Personal Agility Checklist will help to check the agility of the future employees. The originality of the article is based on the uniqueness of the Agility Journey that has been developed for the first time. Further research on this topic should be focused on the development of an agile mindset as a prerequisite for the provision of agility in the company.Метою статті є розробка рекомендацій щодо визначення та вимірювання зрілості бізнесу при впровадженні еджайл-підходу для високотехнологічних компаній. У дослідженні використовуються методи аналізу документів, спостереження, особистого та глибинного інтерв’ю та кейс-стаді. Розроблено Business Agility Journey для визначення стану зрілості компанії та проведення експрес-діагностики еджайльності. Agile Project Management Journey було розроблено для визначення компаніями своїх слабких сторін, а також заходів для переходу від традиційного до еджайльного підходу. Personal Agility Checklist був створений для перевірки «гнучких навичок» (soft skills) співробітників на наявність гнучкого мислення (agile mindset). Обмеження досліджень включають вивчення зрілості компаній ІТ-галузі. Практична значущість ґрунтується на використанні запропонованих Agility Journeys для визначення стану зрілості та основних проблем на шляху переходу. Також Personal Agility Checklist допоможе перевірити еджайльність майбутніх працівників. Оригінальність статті базується на унікальності Agility Journey, яка була розроблена вперше. Подальші дослідження на цю тему доцільно зосередити на розвитку гнучкого мислення як передумови забезпечення еджайльності в компанії

Enterprise Agility: Why Is Transformation so Hard?

Enterprise agility requires capabilities to transform, sense and seize new business opportunities more quickly than competitors. However, acquiring those capabilities, such as continuous delivery and scaling agility to product programmes, portfolios and business models, is challenging in many organisations. This paper introduces definitions of enterprise agility involving business management and cultural lenses for analysing large-scale agile transformation. The case organisation, in the higher education domain, leverages collaborative discovery sprints and an experimental programme to enable a bottom-up approach to transformation. Meanwhile the prevalence of bureaucracy and organisational silos are often contradictory to agile principles and values. The case study results identify transformation challenges based on observations from a five-month research period. Initial findings indicate that increased focus on organisational culture and leveraging of both bottom-up innovation and supportive top-down leadership activities, could enhance the likelihood of a successful transformation