Due to the situation with the pandemic, today companies try to forecast the future and formulate the best business strategy. How to plan business strategy development, if no one knows exactly what will happen tomorrow?

Well, it’s impossible to predict every little thing, but with the Agile approach in business, the company can adapt quickly to any changes. 

What is Agile Methodology?

It’s a set of principles for software development that everyone’s talking about. Agile is more than just daily stand-ups and meetings. It is based on an iterative approach, and the key is to create a non-stop flow of product releases. It’s awesome to release the perfect product, but how much time will it take? Will it be without bugs? It’s more real to release simple working products and to improve them in the future. And this approach can be adopted in any business. 

Agile is like an Italian family with many relatives - frameworks, and the most popular ones are Kanban, Scrum, and Lean. 

The Agile Approach in Business

Agile mindset is able to work not only in the IT-sphere, and more and more companies from various fields have already adopted Agile frameworks in business. Big brands like Apple, Microsoft, IBM successfully using Agile frameworks also approved that Agile fits both world-wide organizations and local businesses. 

Agile can be not only a methodology but a set of tools and principles that allow you to optimize processes, minimize controversial situations, and speed up the work. The key thing in the Agile approach is the ability to move easily and quickly from task to task and to make good decisions fast. 

What are the other basic principles of Agile in business?

• Focus on customers’ demands. If everyone in the team knows what the customers want, the employees offer more effective solutions in their area of responsibility.
• Simplify organizational structures and working processes in the team. Simplicity is one of the core Agile values. People should concentrate on their work, and not only on various documentation and rules.
• Use feedback at every step of work. The feedback received from customers and the team makes the product's quality better and the processes more efficient.

Steps to Make Your Business Agile During the Pandemic

Agile means continuous improvement, and to stay competitive in your business field, you should be able to change. To implement the agile approach right, you shouldn’t focus only on the right set of software but you need to change the culture in your teams. 

The pandemic became a necessary driver for many companies to start digital transformation and change the principles of project management. As if you want to survive on the market, you have to adapt to it. Agile approach helps many teams to change their traditional way of work and to stay effective and productive. 

So how to adopt the Agile approach to your business? Here are short recommendations that will save your company from extreme transformation and make it smooth and seamless. 

Step 1. Building Agile teams 

The main thing is to start cultural changes and to spread Agile across the organization starting from Agile teams. Personal qualities and the level of communication in the team is more important than processes, so pay attention not only to professional qualities, but also to soft skills.

Still, building agile teams is simpler when you have special software. At Polontech, we create a new infrastructure based on Atlassian tools to make you an Agile champion. These tools are highly customizable, so it’s possible to change and improve all the settings according to your business requirements. If you don’t want to change the software completely, it’s possible to integrate Atlassian tools with current software to create an effective agile infrastructure. 

Step 2. Add more agility to the whole company

Start with several teams and move forward, adopting the agile approach to every level of your organization. If you have several projects and products in your company, the most optimal solution is to implement Agile portfolio management. 

Step 3. Keep balance between traditional business operations and innovations

To gain success, you should do two things parallelly: run the business efficiently and to change when necessary. Don’t let your company starve for innovation, as it’s the major driver of progress. The balance between innovation and operations makes you ready for any situation. 

Conclusion

There will always be some crisis on the market. Don’t wait when obstacles make you change the business model - make your business model Agile and adaptive. With the Agile approach in business, you’re open for changes. When people in the company understand the values and principles of Agile and work implementing them, then everyone becomes responsible for the result, driving the company to its business goals.