With the "internet of things" nearly every business is getting into software development. Knowledge of how to create quality software in shorter time frames is a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, these transformations are about organizational change. Many fail or struggle because there is not enough support and understanding from the top.
Agile tranformatons are often unsuccessful or challenged. One of the main reasons is that there is a lack of knowledge and authority at the highest levels of the organization. The needed organizational change does not happen without the proper knowledge and leadership.
Create a new position at the highest levels of the company that would allow the company to make the organizational changes necessary to create the environment where agile software development will flourish. The suggestion is a CAO - Chief Agile Officer.
The practical impact is that the changes needed to create an environment where agile can flourish can be made. When electricity was new and not well known, CEOs - Chief Electricity Offiers were installed to help take advantage of the new technology for competitive advantage. A Cheif Agile Officer will allow for the company to harness agile for competitive advantage.
Inertia. Companies do not understand software development and what Agile transformations are all about.
Start the conversation around whether this is a good idea or not. Begin the PR push to get the idea out to the business environment.
Larry Apke - Agile Expert, Agile Coach, Software Development Consultant
Really interesting idea. Is this a work-in-progress, or have you examples of where this role is implemented?
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Currently it is just a work in progress. Over the last 7+ years as an Agile Coach and Scrum Master I have worked with 8 different companies of varying size that were in the process of transitioning from Waterfall to Agile (one company was on their third try). They all would have benefited from someone at the highest level of the company providing the support necessary for the transition. All of these did not have this support at the C-level.
If we consider the meteoric rise of CISO (By 2009, approximately 85% of large organizations had a security executive, up from 56% in 2008, and 43% in 2006.- Wikipedia) it is surprising that CAO has not taken off. I think a big reason is that CISO is risk avoidance whereas CAO is proactive. The second thing is that companies are failing to realize that agile transformation is a company-wide thing and not just a PMO or IT thing.
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Sharing a similar background, I certainly agree with you that C-level support is crucial, and the idea of a CAO is very interesting. I see the challenge of getting the CXOs to accept a CAO, just because the reason that agile transformation is perceived as a IT-thing. Should you have any success I would be extremely interested in a case study which discuss the key-factors and obstacles for establishing such a role. I wish you the best of luck.
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