What can Business Leaders and HR Professionals learn from Agile Software Development?
How can we apply it in performance management?
This paper provides insights into some of the practices that are used in agile software development, which could be applied directly, or with some modification, to enhance performance management in any organisation.
Agile Software Development
Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Agile methods promote a process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, and a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability. It is a set of software engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals.
Agile significantly increases productivity and reduces time to benefits relative to the traditional waterfall processes. It enables organizations to anticipate and expect changes, to adjust smoothly to changing requirements, and to produce a product that meets evolving customer needs and business goals.
Re-Engineering Performance Management
Traditional performance management is going through a similar re-invention as the old waterfall method in software development. Some organisations are scrapping their traditional performance management methods and starting to design what today’s workforce needs and to meet business goals by starting from a blank sheet of paper. Other organisations are adopting the approach of taking from the best of what they have, removing impediments and adding new elements to meet today’s needs.
According to a study by Deloitte, 58% of employees say that their performance management process is not an effective use of time. In the same study, only 8% of organisations say that their performance management process is highly effective.
Our previous paper Re-Engineering Performance Management , will inform you further about how and why organisations are moving away from their traditional performance management process to a more agile performance management process.
What can we learn from Agile that we can apply on a day-to-day basis in work?
To continue reading about how agile methods can be applied for day-to-day performance management, please contact us
Next Steps
If you are an employer and have any questions, please contact your CollierBroderick HR Advisor, call us on 01 8666426, contact us, or email us on enquiries@collierbroderick.
