The People's Scrum: Agile Ideas for Revolutionary Transformation

The three principles on the outside loop—outcome-based strategy, value-based prioritization, and lightweight planning and governance— focus on answering the “how should we invest” question. The inner loop principles—autonomous teams; adaptive, learning culture; and self-sufficient, collaborative decisions—speak to working together and adapting fast

Software development teams can improve all they like, but if the time from customer need identified to need met hasn’t changed because of bottlenecks in the flow, any local optimization of agility in IT will make little or no difference in the end-to-end time to value.

When employees hear that they’re undergoing an “Agile Transformation,” at least two of those top three motivators are taken away. There is a lack of autonomy (you have to do this thing, you have no choice) and there is a lack of mastery (you’re a beginner again, possibly after a long career). So increasing agility can feel like a big price to pay.