AQUA - agile quick assessment - Results

AQUA - agile quick assessment results

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Capability Set CS1 - Social relationship network

This Capability Set (CS1) is called the Social Relationship Network. Organisationally this capability set characterises the social relationship network that is typical for a family. The size of this organisation depends on the number of social relationships that one person can maintain, which is at approximately 20 for strong relationships and 150 for acquaintances. This represents the natural limits in terms of members of an organisation. Other aspects of this capability set include processes, technology and information. It is usually characterised by one or two strong/charismatic subject matter experts that are seen as heroes and their helpers. Due to the nature of the structure, they tend to spend more time in reactive mode than in proactive mode. Unfortunately, as organisations get larger, there is less innovation and productivity if this is the only model in place. Processes: These are typically undocumented or in a state of constant change. They tend to be driven in an ad hoc, uncontrolled and reactive manner by users or events. This provides a chaotic or unstable environment for the processes. Technology is tailored for its specific purpose every time. Old solutions serve as a starting point to be adapted for each next challenge. Information and products are frequently changing formats and cannot be easily re-applied again. The Social Relationship Network (CS1) works well for small organisations. It will also be seen as natural informal networks within teams in any larger organisations.

Capability set CS2 - Hierarchical Line Organisation

This Capability set (CS2) is known as Hierarchical Line Organisation. The typical organisational form of this configuration set is the hierarchical line organisation that mainly represents structures indicated by staff count or budget. This leads to teams that are siloed. The informal CS1 Network can usually help compensate for any negative effects of silos, but adds an extra burden to the employees. Managers in this capability set focus on command and control and are replacing subject matter experts. These managers tend to focus on career and status and are measured by results. Employees focus on their work and leave the direction, decision and responsibility to the managers. While this leads to an effective organisation, it also leads to less innovation and lower efficiency within the organisation. It is characteristic of this capability set that some processes are repeatable with consistent results. However, process discipline is unlikely to be rigorous. Fire-fighting mode is typical. Technology and Information are department based and not integrated. This leads to difficulty sharing information across departments and tends to be duplicated so it is difficult to find the Master Data Set. Overall, transparency and collaboration are difficult across silos, departments and teams. The Hierarchical Line Organisation (CS2) works well in an environment with low complexity.

Capability Set CS3 - Process oriented matrix organisation

Organisationally the emphasis is to overcome the silo effect of the CS2 by a value generation (process) orientation. This can be achieved with a process organisation or a process oriented matrix organisation. The processes at this capability level are defined and documented standard processes (routine) with continuous improvement over time. The processes are systematically and repeatedly used with the process to be validated in a wide range of situations. Complex and Unique Processes may not be documented in CS3 in order to simplify the models. This simplification may lead to missed innovation and limiting creativity. Technology is ideally fully integrated reflecting the seamless process landscape. The high level of clarity and technical solution integration allows effective measurements and KPI assessments. The Process oriented matrix Organisation (CS3) enables large companies to bring efficiencies to their routine processes.

Capability Set CS4 - Collaborative and agile team organisation

This Capability set represents the agile and collaborative team organisation with decision autonomy in teams in order to be able to adapt to complex working conditions. Team building and consensus-based decisions are characteristic of this CS. In general, people have experienced the business in various conditions and are able to demonstrate competence. Behaviour is more determined by principles, patterns, case libraries and individual intuition than by rules, standards or regulations. Process metrics and effective achievement of the process objectives are used across the operational environments. The established processes have been tested and refined and adapted with continual use. Processes are then adapted to particular projects without measurable losses of quality or deviations from specifications. Parts of the processes are transformed into Technology Services and Automation with Information processed with focus on topic maturity instead of information workflow. This allows a stronger focus on communication and maturity instead of work sharing and efficiency. On this level, Innovation and Creativity have grown exponentially. However, as organisations grow, scaled agile needs to be maintained and fostered to keep innovation and creativity growing. This allows teams within the organisation to remain aligned. The Collaborative and Agile Team Organisation (CS4) is a must for companies with a larger demand of innovation and creativity in a complex environment.

Capability Set CS5 - Sociocracy 3.0

The organisation on this capability set is dynamically build as required and where necessary, and always based on full capabilities of a CS2, CS3 and CS4 capability set. This is best met by the concept of a Sociocracy 3.0. People on capability set 5 focus on the development of a collective intuition to cope with the high level of complexity and dynamics of their context. A big proportion of communication deals with sharing their assumptions and experiences (patterns). Processes are continually improving through both incremental and innovative technological changes/improvements. At CS5, processes are concerned with addressing statistical common causes of process variation and changing to improve process performance. This would be done at the same time as maintaining the likelihood of achieving the established quantitative process-improvement objectives. In order to cope with the high level of complexity and information volume the information is set up in a semantic network using modern technologies like knowledge graph, block chain, artificial intelligence and pattern recognition (fuzzy logic) wherever possible. At this level, the organisation starts to go away and this just becomes a group of participants that come together on a supply chain platform for a task or process. Once this is complete, the organisation might even dissolve.

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AQUA – agile quick assessment – Results