Collaboration Galore is Agile Galore

Taylorism & Waterfall

For us to understand the true meaning of Agile, we need to understand and know the history before it. Agile was born out of context and was considered suitable for solving problems caused by previous methods that were not suitable for the domain of knowledge work. . If one were to take a trip back through the history of business strategy and scientific management, one would find that both were inspired by Taylorism. Taylorism is about recognizing the fact that since there are many ways to produce, there is a better way. Taylor theory is about determining the most efficient way to do a task, the best sequence that allows it to be done in the fastest and most cost-effective way. This method was established by Frederick Taylor, who applied it in a steel fabrication plant. He will do this by dividing workers into groups and identifying why others are faster and more efficient than others. He spent a lot of time speeding them up. The result of this exercise is that he will devise the best manufacturing process and dictate that the process be followed. As a result, employees have to pause their creativity and focus only on execution. Taylorism is founded on four pillars:

• Using scientific methods to understand how to approach specific roles. Common sense and habits should not be the determining factor in how workers perform their jobs. Importance has been given to repeatability.
• Job assignment based on employee skills 
• Supervisors should supervise the work of subordinates
• Managers should be responsible for planning and training while employees are only responsible for implementing plans

It is also interesting to note that one of Taylor's mentees was Henry Gant after whom the Gant chart is named. Taylorism also influenced Henry Ford's assembly line method. This production method has been applied and appreciated for its ability to improve productivity and efficiency. As a method, it has been copied in a variety of industries.

Taylorism is therefore concerned with the sequence of tasks and the division of labor. He reduced employees to mindless and easily replaceable entities. In the Taylor world, it is impossible for employees to organize themselves alone, because they are not trusted, by default thinking that workers are lazy.

Waterfall/Taylorism as a Operating Model

If one were to design a conceptual framework for an operating model, four categories would need to be included at the heart of that framework. These categories would be:

• Process: Work to be done to deliver the value proposition
• People: Roles and responsibilities
• Information systems: Technology/software used to execute doing work
• Location: Around where work is done.

Once a process has been established, the next step will be to design an organizational structure (diagram) that complements the process. Organizational design will manifest itself in the layout of physical spaces (offices, cabinets, chairs, tables, first or second floor, departments).

In the world of Taylor; from an organizational design perspective, people need to be assigned to a specific department. This dictates the physical space they must occupy in the building and the people with whom they will interact – the feathered birds that gather together. This is so because the work being done is moved sequentially from one department to another, and the structure of the Organization complements that. Thus, in this sense, Taylorism fostered a culture of secessionist silos that were not conducive to cooperation – not in the cross-functional sense of the term. 

Limits of Waterfall in the Field of Mental Labor 

Waterfall is still the best methodology in scenarios where the product being developed is a physical one. When building a house, it is impossible to say "along the way", everything must be known in advance and everything must follow a specific sequence. However, in the field of mental work, things are different because the next task  performed is completely differently from the previous one. Furthermore, the waterfall methodology worked best in an era where change was predictable.

In the context of software development for an example, software developers cannot be reduced to mindless entities like steel mill workers, because they are knowledge workers. They are employed to think and not "just do". They should be involved in the initial planning as they are the ones who can determine the technical feasibility.

Agility and Digital Transformation

Agile as most companies do today is not true Agile as it is piggy-backed on the Waterfall infrastructure. In most companies, we find that only the IT department has adopted the Agile approach. Therefore, the talk of business analysts "bridging the gap" between IT and the business, because IT is not considered part of the business. This gap allowed the different departments to organize themselves differently as though they were different organizations. This implied that there was no common vision - not in the operational sense.

Digitization as we do it today is not true digitization as it is a simple automation of manual tasks. The hypothetical approach is a business-led approach. On the other hand, digital transformation involves an approach to business change. It's about completely changing the way business works. An example would be  online bank account opening. Online account opening allows customers to open a bank account without having to visit a branch. Mere automation of manual tasks in online account opening would involve using a software application to collect and process the customer's information, such as their name, address, and date of birth. This information would then be sent to a human banker for verification and approval. Digital transformation in online account opening goes beyond mere automation by using technology to transform the way the account opening process is conducted. This can involve things like:

• Using AI and machine learning to identify and pre-fill out the customer's information, reducing the amount of data entry required by the customer.
• Using real-time identity verification to verify the customer's identity quickly and securely.
• Using chatbots to answer customer questions and provide support during the account opening process.

In a scenario like this, from a collaboration perspective, a solution of this nature would require inter-disciplinary (legal, financial, compliance, marketing, customer support etc.) inputs. The inputs provided transcend those that are merely gathered and elicited by a Business Analyst but by establishing a truly cross-functional team that totally transforms the way in which a bank account is opened. Someone from finance, legal, marketing would therefore be part of the product development team.

For digital transformation to become apparent, an organization-wide adoption of Agile must happen. One that allows for interdisciplinary collaboration. This means that the organization must be designed differently and the physical space must be arranged differently to enable this cross-functional collaboration.

Conclusion

Agile methodology is a reaction to the limitations of Waterfall methodology, which is a traditional approach to project management that is sequential and inflexible. Waterfall methodology was inspired by Taylorism, which is a management philosophy that emphasizes efficiency and productivity through scientific methods. Taylorism led to the creation of siloed organizations where employees were not allowed to think for themselves and were only responsible for executing tasks. This approach is not effective in the knowledge work domain, where the next task performed is totally different from the previous. Agile methodology is a more flexible and collaborative approach that allows teams to adapt to change and deliver value to customers more quickly. However, many organizations still practice a hybrid of Waterfall and Agile, which limits the benefits of Agile. For true digital transformation to occur, organizations need to adopt Agile methodology across the entire organization and create a culture of collaboration. 

Next in the collaboration series is the exploration of different operating models that can be explored to enhance cross-functional collaboration.

So I say Collaboration is Agile Galore!