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Agililty in a Burocratic organization

Last post 11:05 am January 28, 2015 by Joshua Partogi
4 replies
Rik Pennartz
07:13 am January 21, 2015

Many governamental organizations are very burocratic. Is it possible to adopt an agile way of working, such as Scrum in such an organization? What are your experiences? What is your approach?

Joshua Partogi
12:08 am January 22, 2015

Very possible. The UK government is doing it https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile
The Singaporean government also has been enforcing agility.

Ludwig Harsch
02:45 am January 22, 2015

Hi Rik,
I agree that it is possible. However organizational change is probably one of the most difficult tasks, so don't expect it to be easy. In burocratic organizations the hierarchy is very important (which is not agile, but the status quo when you start), so you need support from the highest hierarchy level. Help those people understand the benefits.
Good luck :)

Rik Pennartz
08:14 am January 23, 2015

Joshua and Ludwig, thanks for your replies. The website from the UK governement is very useful and it is interesting to see how they are promoting agile working. Do you know of any specific projects that are succesful?

Joshua Partogi
11:05 am January 28, 2015

The GDS (Government Digital Service) team are awesome and has been very successful. You should follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/gdsteam

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