A complex program, a constantly changing environment or a project with more than 1,000 requirements and at least as many preconditions and interfaces? Then it quickly becomes difficult to create a planning that gives the right direction in advance. Our experience shows that this is not due to the quality of the annual plans, but that so much uncertainty plays a role that the exact right route cannot be mapped out in advance. That we live in a constantly changing world is now well known, but why do we still set our plans for one or more years? Moreover, we do not like to go back on decisions made in the past; a deal is a deal. Going back on a decision is often seen as weakness. Let’s start being an agile organization! By using an Agile annual plan, you enable this right into the capillaries of the organization. We are happy to explain what this means and how you can get started with an Agile annual plan.
Alignment with organizational strategy
With an Agile way of working, your strategy does not change, you just assume that the path to your goal is not yet clear. In addition, you also accept that your organization’s environment is constantly changing. Therefore, the plan changes as well. Therefore, the plan must be in line with the organizational strategy and is therefore subject to change. Also throughout the year. What is your organization’s mission and vision? And what are your organization’s long-term strategic goals? Make sure you distill from this your strategic initiatives for the coming year. This does not have to be concrete yet, but you could already define a range and set expectations. Moreover, the path towards it is not always clear yet.
Working short cyclically with quarter-rocks
To make this path transparent, break it up into short, manageable periods that follow each other iteratively, for example, into quarters. At the beginning of the year you discuss spearheads on which you focus for the first quarter: the first cycle. We call this quarterly rocks. The comparison with Agile’s epics is easily made. You cut these quarterly racks into clear, measurable key results. These are of course in line with the annual target. Make sure you do not formulate more than 3 to 5 quarterly rocks, so this can also mean that you spend less time one quarter on objectives that need less attention. For each quarterly rock, we again suggest 3 to 5 key results. The valuable thing about this method is that everyone is aware of the prioritization.
The status of the quarterly rocks is discussed in a weekly meeting. Here actions are distributed, requests for help are made and actions that have been completed are reviewed. It is important to transparently discuss which actions are being invested and make a joint estimate of how much time it will take to perform an action. This can be weighed against the available hours for that week. Of great importance is that there is an open culture and mutual trust within the team. It may happen that someone has not completed his or her action, even though it has been jointly estimated how much time it will take. At such a time, space must be given to ask for help. For this, understanding and the will to help each other is very important. So also take the time as a team to learn how much time actions actually take. After six months you can make a reasonable estimate. You do this reflection through a review and a retrospective.
Review and retrospective
General question the team answers after a quarter is: are we on track or do we need to make adjustments? Did we achieve all the goals? And if so, were they ambitious enough? Or was there more to them? What is the quality of what we have delivered, what does the customer think of it? When will you know if a certain target was the right one? Once all the targets set for the past quarter have been met, it is good to consider whether the targets were ambitious enough. Our rule of thumb is to set ambitious goals that are just achievable. We are satisfied when we reach 60-80%, the champagne is opened when we reach 100%. This means that the goals set are only achievable if everything goes according to plan. We have experienced that a higher end result is achieved this way. We call reflecting on the goals the review. In addition, you make use of a retrospective. This means that you also reflect on the process and the way of working together.
Concluding whether or not the team is on track helps set new goals. As a team, you already know more about the extent to which you are going to achieve the annual goal, whether it is possible to do more than in the past quarter or whether it might be necessary to set other priorities that contribute to the end result. In this way it is possible to make adjustments every quarter, and within these quarterly rocks you even make adjustments weekly during team meetings. You have created a flexible organization that is agile and able to reflect on its own work.
Do you also suffer from schedules that often run differently, are changed or are not achieved? Or would you like to know what the possibilities are within your company to work in a more flexible way? Contact us or download the insight below.
