Tricks to make Agile work for you

Agile working has changed from being a buzzword to something that is delivering meaningful benefits to organisations across the world. But while the concept of working in an agile way may appear simple, implementing Agile methodologies effectively in an organisation can be a bigger challenge.

Here are three key tips from our network of risk leaders, exchanged during one of our private meetings on introducing agile ways of working to a risk management function, to help you implement Agile techniques into your risk management processes.

These are summarised below, and the full meeting write-up is available to members on our Intelligence platform. 

1. Keep an eye on progress

Sprints are a great way of getting work done, but to get the most out of them you must keep your eye on the ball.

Sprint planning sessions are not only useful for planning out work for the week ahead; you can also use them to update everyone on the progress made over the last sprint, and look at ways of making improvements for next time.

It is therefore important to foster an open and transparent working environment, so that everyone feels safe to speak up, make comments and suggest new ways of doing things.

2. Stand up and be counted

In addition to the planning sessions at the beginning and end of each sprint, succinct stand up meetings of around 15 minutes are a fantastic way of ensuring everyone is on target.

These sessions can also be useful for identifying where you may need additional support, or if any issues have been identified that may impede progress.

3. Plan your productivity

When working on a sprint it is important to plan your time effectively.

Each day should be split into seven hours of productivity so that you always know where you are within the project cycle, as well as what you still need to do.

This not only helps people to manage their time better when working on a project, but it also improves the effectiveness of planning for future projects of a similar nature, making it much more likely that the team will complete work on time and on budget.

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