EAFH-10: Jutta Eckstein – BOSSA nova: Beyond Agile – Preparing for Digitalization

By KnolShare | April 28, 2019

Welcome to the KnolShare with Dr. Dave podcast, hosted on Grokshare.com and streamed on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You are listening to Episode #10 of the Agile For Humanity Tucson Meetup Webinar Series featuring Jutta Eckstein. The topic is BOSSA nova: Beyond Agile – Preparing for Digitalization.

BOSSA is an acronym that means:

Beyond Budgeting
Open Space
Sociocracy
Agile

The definition of “Nova” is “a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months”. The reality of systems returning to their original state can be demoralizing if not cared for with diligence. That is why we use the Plan Do Inspect Adapt cycle of continual improvement to help sustain a better way of working

Abstract

Digitalization calls for rapid organizational flexibility and adaptability. This has an impact on all dimensions of a company: its strategy, structure, and the processes. Agile will help implementing some of this flexibility and adaptability yet mainly in terms of processes. But true organizational agility doesn’t result from simply “trying harder” by e.g. substituting management meetings with daily Scrums or using a backlog for the board of directors.

Thus, the digital transformation needs companies to look beyond Agile and look for principles that guide us in developing:

Continuous improvement strategies necessary to enable self-sufficiency and adaptation in every department – not just the software department.
The executive and board roles in driving organizational agility.
Processes, strategies, and structures that enable the current culture to self-organize for company-wide agility.

Company-wide agility requires a holistic approach, a combination of different principles: First and foremost, the principles of Beyond Budgeting, Open Space, and Sociocracy provide the missing links for a company to fully embrace digitalization. The combination of these concepts enables a company not only to survive but also to thrive (digital) disruptions.

About Jutta

Jutta works as an independent coach, consultant, trainer, author, and speaker. She has helped many teams and organizations worldwide to make an agile transition. She has a unique experience in applying agile processes within medium-sized to large distributed mission-critical projects. She has published her experience in her books. She is the co-author of ‘Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy’ (abbreviated with BOSSA nova) and ‘Diving for Hidden Treasures: Uncovering the Cost of Delay in your Project Portfolio’. She is the author of ‘Agile Software Development in the Large’, ‘Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams’, and ‘Retrospectives for Organizational Change’.

She is a member of the Agile Alliance (having served the board of directors from 2003-2007) and a member of the program committee of many different American, Asian, and European conferences, where she has also presented her work.

Sponsors & Summary

We would like to thank our sponsor KnolShare for the continued support for this podcast. Visit KnolShare.org to achieve your awesomeness through agile coaching and training, digital transformation strategy, agile organization development, lean business startup, and diversity and inclusion training.

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Checkout Dr. Dave’s latest book Elastic Minds: What are you thinking? On Amazon.com. You will also find his book Transforming your leadership Character: The lean thinking and agility way on Amazon.com.

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This podcast and interview produced by Dr. Dave Cornelius

Until next time, find your awesomeness.