The impact of technology and the permanent change of products and services challenge companies to innovate and respond to the needs of consumers. Learn how to do it efficiently with these methodologies.
Behind the success of Pixar is the prodigious mind of Steve Jobs , but also different methods that would forever change the way of understanding organizational culture, including innovation hubs, coworking and braintrust , which promote permanent contact between collaborators, leisure spaces within companies to improve productivity, and the belief in the ideals and potential of people rather than in great ideas.
Like these techniques to encourage creativity, teamwork and the creation or improvement of products and services, agile innovation methodologies have been positioned in the business sector thanks to their flexibility and their ability to break paradigms. These arise from an agile manifesto that seventeen critics of software development models raised in 2001 and achieve:
- Improve the efficiency, development and quality of final products.
- Greater responsiveness to change.
- More customer satisfaction.
- Early deliveries of results.
- Facilitate continuous feedback throughout the implementation process.
According to Ana María Giraldo Botero, Chain Research and Development coordinator , “in a traditional project, systematic practices are used that have a high probability of not giving the expected results and the contracts leave the greatest risk to one of the parties. On the other hand, the agile ones allow all the actors to be involved from the early stages of creation and construction of the service or product, with technical discussions, management of differences and overcoming problems”
The four most popular agile methodologies are:
A strategic decision
The influence of Information and Communication Technologies, ICT, impacts the daily activities of businesses. Emerging companies come to the market with other ways of buying, learning and communicating , therefore, the traditional ones must understand the needs of consumers and solve them promptly.
According to data from the 2011-2015 Chaos Report after evaluating 10,000 software projects, 39% were successful and 9% failed with agile methodologies, while with traditional methods only 11% were successful and 29% failed.
It is a challenge for companies to reach a level of maturity and organizational agility that allows them to have self-managed teams that know their responsibilities and work to obtain the best benefits, deliver a functional product, and adapt to change.
Likewise, the disposition of senior management must be taken into account, have trained human talent , define these methodologies as an organization strategy and promote greater trust among those involved.
4 principles for good results
- Manage expectations: Agile methodologies do not imply lower costs or a final delivery before the planned date.
- Add a client to the team: so that approvals are immediate and the greatest possible trust is generated between the parties.
- Strengthen the culture of innovation: that it respects the best practices and the management guide for agile projects.
- Have a reward system: make it emotional and recognize all the effort of the work team.
