Agile Finance
Why do we need Agile Finance? How is it different to what we do today?
Now in the Age of Agile organisations are experimenting with Agile HR, Sales with Agile, Agile Marketing and so on. Finance can (and should) help these departments with their transformation.
Agile is a Mindset, and rather than costly and time-consuming wholesale changes, we are talking here about small switches or shifts in emphasis in two key areas:
1. How should we, as Finance professionals, engage with and support other departments which are moving or have have moved to Agile?
2. Is there a benefit in applying an Agile Mindset to how we work internally within the Finance team?
1. Enabling and supporting the organisation
Something which wastes a lot of time, effort and energy is the process of "translating" the Agile reporting into traditional reporting. The two are not very compatible. It is a bit like trying to explain Eintein's theories but being forced to apply Newtonian principles.
The good news is that the shifts in emphasis we suggest should be logic and obvious once they are understood and experienced. And they do not have to be done all at once.
When the Finance team requires the other departments to report their Agile metrics instead of the traditional reporting we are used to, those departments will more quickly and more fully become Agile. Agile does not work in a vaccum.
Items to consider...
Incremental release of budgets
Don't try to deliver everything
Stop early
2. Applying and Agile Mindset internally to the Finance Team
There are some immediate things we can do within the Finance team to become more Agile, other elements may take a little longer to embed.
Returning to the Physics analogy, we can compare traditional reporting to Classical Physics and Agile reporting to Modern or Quantum Physics, in that the former is more rigid and relies on predictable patterns to predict what will happen, whereas the latter is able to cope better with the complexity and ambiguity we face.
Items to consider...
Think big, start small
Vision & Roadmap - but detailed planning only for near horizon
Adapting to change
Why are we doing it like this?
Diminishing rates of return on the effort in creating the accounts
Working with the CEO and HR
Once we have got our heads round the Agile ways of working, and we are supporting the unique way our organisation is implementing Agile, we as Finance professionals are very well placed to support our CEO and the HR departments, both of which are critical to a successful completion of any Agile Transformation.
