Agile Organizational Structure

Agile organizational structure has a flexible and adaptable nature and it supports and facilitates the designs of the company. It focuses on dividing small and autonomous teams and empowering them to make quick and timely decisions. Often, such teams work cross-functional and they have the skills and expertise to complete the task without the approval of any department. Today, we’ll discuss agile organizational structure; its various types, implementation steps, and challenges.

Benefits of Agile Organizational Structure

• Helps companies to quickly respond to the changes
• Develops new products and services quickly and speedily
• Improving collaboration and coordination among employees and team members
• Decreases the cost and expenses by decreasing the layers of management

Types of Agile Organizational Structure

Let’s discuss the main types of agile organizational structure; they’re as follows;

Specialist

The specialist is a type of structure where every team member has a clear comprehension of the single area or discipline. It is an efficient method to perform organized work, the team members could focus on other areas of work and produce high quality work. However, it is an inflexible structure, where the team members could find it difficult to switch from tasks, roles, and responsibilities.

Generalist

The generalist model is visible and observed in the smaller organizations and it focuses on team members that have a clear comprehension of a variety of topics and subjects. The agile structure improves the capability of the company to quickly and efficiently respond to challenges and changes. However, the generalist doesn’t have the in-depth knowledge and comprehension like the specialist; but they have resources to manage a variety of tasks and activities. The generalist model has a flexible structure and they know the efficient and effective ways to manage and organize teams.

Hybrid

As the name implies, the hybrid structure is an integration of both specialist and generalist structures. The hybrid teams usually have 2 generalists and they manage and organize the entire project; where the rest of the team could focus on the specific tasks. The hybrid team structure offers a lot of benefits to businesses and companies; having a greater sense of ownership, high-quality deliverables, and better teamwork.

However, the agile and hybrid teams have a flexible and adoptable structure, and their structure is suitable for various types of fast-paced environment. They have a clear comprehension of their roles, tasks, and activities; it leads them towards better collaboration and communication.

Parallel

The parallel structure focuses on the principle of parallelism. It means that the team members could share roles, tasks, and responsibilities within every new project. However, it conducts various types of training programs for team members, so that they can perform a variety of roles and tasks. The parallel structure offers a lot of benefits to the companies and they’re as follows;

• Helping team members to be flexible and efficiently respond to changes
• Promoting collaboration and reducing silos
• Making sure that the team members are learning new skills and expertise
• A key area of agile structure helps companies to become successful

Implementing Agile Structure

Some of the main steps of implementing an agile organizational structure are as follows;

Clear Comprehension

First of all, you should have a clear comprehension of the agile structure. It doesn’t have a single definition of the agile structure, rather it is core and it requires flexibility and adaptability. You should be open towards changes and experiment new ideas. It requires you to empower you team members, so that they take responsibility and ownership of their project and make independent decisions.

Setting Goals

It is significant to clearly know the reasons why you want the agile structure. You should be clear about their goals and objectives and how you plan to achieve them. Once you have set the goals and objectives, then you should develop a comprehensive plan on how to execute the structure within your company.

Bringing Team onboard

The agile structure won’t work out unless every team member is onboard with the change plan. It is necessary to discuss it with your team members that why you are switching to the agile structure. You should gather their feedback and reviews and develop a comprehensive plan that works for everyone.

Requires Time

The implementation of the agile structure doesn’t happen overnight, rather it takes a lot of time and effort. You should be ready to face all types of hurdles and roadblocks and make adjustments for them. While switching to the agile structure, you should keep in mind that it works for your organization.

Challenges of Agile Organizational Structure

Let’s discuss the main challenges of agile structure are as follows;

Unclear Roles and Responsibilities

The agile structure overly focuses on the flexibility and responsiveness. Often, it doesn’t have clear roles and responsibilities for employees and team members. They have no idea about their role and place inside the organization, and it causes a lot of problems and issues for them.

No Coordination

Agile teams find it difficult to collaborate and coordinate with one another for the single goal and objective. It comprises of self-contained teams and structures and they have their own priorities and methods working.

Unclear Chain of Command

Decision making becomes highly difficult when you don’t have a clear chain of command. The decentralized nature and style of structure, where there is no coordination and collaboration among various activities.

Not Seeing the Big Picture

The company’s success is highly dependent on working towards the common goal collectively. Without coordination, it guides them to lose sight of the big picture and it becomes highly difficult for them to align it with the company’s goals and objectives.

Conclusion: Agile Organizational Structure

After an in-depth study of the agile organizational structure; we have realized that agile structure is highly significant for businesses and companies. If you are learning about the agile structure; then you should keep in mind its types, challenges, and implementation steps.