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

What Constitutes Software Development Agility?

Software development agility is the capability to manage various kinds of changes during the development process. Agile methods purport to facilitate processes that can address agility. However, the underlying dimensions of agility are not well elucidated in the literature. Specifically, what constitutes software development agility and what are organizational antecedents and outcomes of the agility dimensions are research questions that remain to be adequately answered. To bridge this literature gap, this study presents agility dimensions with corresponding descriptions that can help develop measures of agility. This study will contribute to the theoretical literature by developing better understanding about the measurement and nature of agility. Furthermore, the study will provide guidance to practitioners regarding specific processes for achieving agility in the agile software development process

Design of Transformation Initiatives Implementing Organisational Agility -- An Empirical Study

This study uses 125 responses from companies of all sizes headquartered in Germany, Switzerland, France and UK to reveal perceptions of the drivers of organisational agility. It further investigates current understanding of managing principles of multiple organisational dimensions such as culture, values, leadership, organisational structure, processes and others to achieve greater organisational agility. The data set is disaggregated into four major profiles of agile organisations: laggards, execution specialists, experimenters, and leaders. The approach to agile transformation is analysed by each of those profiles. While the positive effect from a more holistic approach is confirmed, leaders tend to focus more on processes and products rather than project work. Respondents perceive that IT, product development and research are most agile functions within their organisations, while human resources, finance and administration are considered being not agile. Further, organisations with higher levels of organisational agility tend use more than one agile scaling framework. Implications on theories of agile transformations and organisational design are discussed

بررسی چابکی سازمانی و شناسایی شاخص‌های ارزیابی آن در سازمان

Today, due to increasing competitive pressure, organizations increasingly need agility to be able to identify and understand the needs of customers, competitive activities of competitors as well as opportunities for cooperation of suppliers. Therefore, the use of information technology in organizations has become inevitable. There are fewer units or activities of organizations that are not affected by information technology. The application of information technology in the organization and the acceleration of change resulting from it, has increased the complexity within organizations. The need for better management of complexity and changes in today's organizations leads them to new approaches such as organizational agility. It is considered as a key factor in dealing with and managing dynamic organizational environments that are accompanied by uncertainty, which leads organizations to their predetermined goals. Due to theimportance of this issue, this study examines and compares previous literature and academic papers in the field of organizational agility and its various models and measurement methods with the aim of identifying its evaluation indicators in the organization. This article introduces 9 factors of product agility, customer agility, supplier agility, employee agility, organizational strategic agility, agility of competitors, information agility, market agility and business process agility as the main indicators of organizational agility assessment. In addition, sub-criteria of each of these indicators were identified. The results of this article can be used as a guide for a comprehensive and effective measurement of organizational agility

Business-IT Alignment Effects on Business Agility

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of business-IT Alignment effects on business agility. The questionnaire of this study was given to 504 people via online survey who work as a manager in 3 public, 9 private and 16 foreign capital banks in Turkey.  334 valid questionnaires were collected back and analyzed.  Corellastion, Regresion and Multiple Regretion analysis were used. According to the findings business-IT alignment has a positive effect on the business agility. As sub dimensions intellectual alignment and business alignment have a positive effect on the business agility. When we look at Business –IT alignment effect on business agility dimensions. It has positive effects on all six dimension of business agility (Agile Values, Technology Workforce, Change Management, Collaboration & Coordination and Flexible Infrastructure.).

Dimensions of Organizational Agility in the Software and IT Service Industry: Insights from an Empirical Investigation

Agility has increasingly gained attention in the software and IT services industry over the last years and academia put a heavy emphasis on research about agile software development methods. However, an organization does not only comprise development teams, and research often lacks an organizational perspective on agility. Presently, we have no consensus about what constitutes an “agile organization”. Hence, in this study, I identify the structure behind the concept of organizational agility using an exploratory research approach. I conducted a survey among organizations in the software and IT service industry and performed an, exploratory factor analysis and a cluster analysis (based on the variables). The results show that one can describe organizational agility using six interrelated factors that one can further aggregate into the three basic dimensions of “agility prerequisites”, “agility of people”, and “structures enhancing agility”. The identified structure is a first step toward a common understanding of organizational agility and helps to guide further research activities while simultaneously supporting practitioners in assessing the agility of their organizations

Organizational Agility Conceptual Model

Organizational agility is a complex and multidimensional concept. One of the challenges in researching organizational agility is its unified definition and concept. Li terature analysis reveals various dimensions and frameworks are used to analyze organization agili- ty. Many of them focus on narrow industry or only approach the organizational agility concept from limited perspective. This article attempts to combine different approaches and angles to organiza- tional agility to a more cohesi ve and encompassing conceptual model that is applicable to variety industries and organizations. The variety and combination of attributes, characteristics, capabili- ties, and practices make the measurement of organizational agility are analyzed. Building on research main frameworks for analyzing organizational agility concept are identified. Conceptual organiza- tional agility model based on organizational agility attributes, capa- bilities and practices framework is presented. This article contrib- utes to research by providing more unified concept, which can be adapted in studying organizational agility in a wide and global range of organizations, regardless of the industry they operate in