Agile Pulse 2023 | BearingPoint România

“The journey is the destination” is a phrase that fits perfectly with our current Agile Pulse study. Why? Because 31 percent of respondents to this year’s survey consider the agile transformation in their organization to be complete. Can an agile transformation ever be completed?

In organizational terms, this question depends, above all, on the chosen transformation approach. Anyone who imposes one of the standard frameworks on their organization in the project process will complete the project at some point. However, anyone who declares the agile transformation of their organization complete at this point is preventing the very essence of agility: the commitment to evolution, especially cultural evolution. Can an agile transformation ever reach its goal? We say yes if you see the goal as the journey.

Agility remains high on the agenda of many companies, public organizations, and authorities, as our Agile Pulse 2022 showed and our current study again confirmed. The proportion of companies and organizations using agile methods continues to grow steadily across the board. A third of respondents declared that their agile transformation was complete, yet acting agile and being agile are not the same thing. Simply introducing agile methods and frameworks is not enough to achieve long-term goals, which require a holistic, multidimensional approach and an evolutionary transformation.

Our study also takes a close look at the design of agile transformations in organizations and, in addition to the horizontal breadth and vertical depth of the anchoring of agile principles, we also consider the prevalence of different transformation approaches and scopes and examine the question of which properties characterize agilely developed products.

We also provide an overview of the agile frameworks currently used at the team and strategic levels and discuss their characteristics and complexity. We then give an overview of business objectives linked to agility and how to achieve them.

Finally, we come to the actual status of the transformation along our holistic maturity model and look at the status quo regarding the 18 aspects of agility - this in an industry comparison. At the end of the study, we give you an overview of our agile portfolio’s most popular products and tools.

Organizations differ in the design, scope, approach, method, objectives, and status of agile transformations. And ultimately also in terms of the limits of what is possible. What makes some organizations successful falls flat for others. In short, just as organizations differ, so do their paths. There is no such thing as “one size fits all.” Finding and shaping your own path is both a challenge and an opportunity.

A summary of the most crucial study results

Organizational integration

Horizontal breadth of integration: Agile practices are applied in an integrated manner at the overall organization level (35%). Vertical depth of integration: Those working in management structurally overestimate their integration into agility (by 54 percent in the case of management).

Transformation approach

Revolutionary/phase-driven: Introduction of agility utilizing a “big bang” or planned milestones (53 percent). Evolutionary: Introduction of agility using an iterative, short-cycle, and explorative approach (47 percent).

Transformation scope

Complete agile transformations mean structural, procedural, technological, and cultural changes. Selective: Focus on one of the aspects mentioned (34 percent). Holistic: Focus on all of the aspects mentioned (16 percent).

Organizational framework conditions

The percentage of respondents who stated that creating the respective organizational framework conditions was a challenge: Time for implementation (57 percent), Willingness to change (55 percent), and Ability to change (55 percent). Relatively easy to establish: Management support (42 percent)/Transparent vision (49 percent)/Compliance compatibility (53 percent).

Transformation progress

Here, we present the normalized, relative agile maturity level per industry or sector as an aggregation of the 18 aspects described on pages 19 to 24 of our study. There are industries with a lower agile maturity (e.g., banking or the public sector) and industries with a higher agile maturity (e.g., consumer goods industry or technology companies).

Goal achievement

Percentage of respondents who stated that they had not yet achieved a goal associated with agility or had only partially or fully achieved it: Missed targets: Quality (38 percent)/Time-to-market (35 percent)/Flexibility (34 percent). Achieved goals: Employer branding (75 percent), Employee satisfaction (72 percent), and Transparency (71 percent).

You can learn more about the status of agile transformation in our study document, which is available in the download area. We hope you enjoy reading it and are happy to help you on your agile journey!

About the study: The Agile Pulse is a transnational study. The data was collected using an online survey of around 1,000 participants from companies and organizations. The participants in this year’s study primarily come from Germany (36%) and Austria (31%).