Inhibitors to agility
The following factors related to processes are the key barriers for enterprises seeking to enhance and sustain agility.
Broken processes
A process is deemed to be broken when it is consistently failing or struggling to fulfil the outcome for which it is designed. Typical symptoms of a broken process include long wait times between activities, which leads to unnecessary delays; the outcome/artefact delivered at the end of the process being of poor quality, which leads to a rework; the process having non-value-added activities (for example, an activity to perform manual testing when it is possible and feasible to automate the testing); and team members circumventing the process to get the work done.
The following are some of the key causes of broken processes:
An "expert" designing the process or modifying it, without involving those who execute the process
A structure that forces unnecessary hand-offs
Lack of shared understanding between the owners of the process and the customers...