Agile and Change Management: Not Apples and Oranges

Agile is a collaborative, user-focused approach to software delivery. Change management (CM) drives the successful adoption of solutions. At first glance, these two approaches seem very different from each other.

One of these things is more like the other…

CM is, at the core, focused on adoption and therefore customer-focused. The key components of Agile align directly with a change management approach (key concepts in Agile from the Agile Manifesto are individuals and interactions, customer collaboration, and responding to change).

How is this similar to change management?

Throughout your change management lifecycle, you are focused on creating collaboration (individuals and interactions) across multiple stakeholders, engaging these end users to be aware and take the relevant action required for adoption (customer collaboration).

(Note: if you looked at the Agile Manifesto, you would see that there is an additional component – Working Software within the Manifesto. For software development projects, this concept aligns with CM through the use of Pilots and Demos prior to adoption.)

For example, a change management approach and an Agile approach to delivering a new payroll system in Company ABC would as follows:

Bottom Line

With both change management and Agile, the key focus is…the customer. Both change management and Agile are driven by adoption and usage.

Do you see any other similarities between change management and Agile key components? Share them!