As businesses across various industries strive to stay competitive, many have turned to agile transformation as a powerful tool for success. Agile transformation is a way of utilizing small, iterative shifts to make lasting improvements.
To make sure that this process is smooth, you must establish SMART goals to guide the journey. In this article, we will explore several examples of SMART goals to promote successful agile transformation.
What is a SMART Goal?
The SMART method will allow you to develop practical goals for agile transformation. For those who don’t know, SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
Want more clarity? Here is an explanation of each SMART element:
Specific
A successful transformation demands more than an enthusiastic team and a desire to change; it also requires specific goals.
Specificity is paramount in maximizing the chances of reaching them. The goal-setting process should begin with evaluating the desired outcome and why the organization must make this shift.
By taking time to define each step along the way—from initial implementation to long-term objectives—teams can ensure that each milestone is met with greater success.
Measurable
When your goals are measurable, you can track them easily, identify what works, and focus on the task at hand. Consider using checklists or tracking systems to monitor progress throughout your road to goal achievement.
Attainable
Although striving for greatness should remain at the forefront of your mind when planning for the future, aiming too high can lead to disappointment if set expectations aren’t met.
After all, your confidence increases as you see tangible results from your hard work—ultimately propelling you toward greatness.
Relevant
Creating relevant goals that align with your values will inspire you, even during times of hardship. Connecting your goals to something more meaningful than tangible outcomes can make it easier to push through with determination.
Time-Based
No journey is complete without a time frame. Without one, it’s easy to get off track and lose sight of your goals. These deadlines will keep you motivated as they create challenges that can be rewarded when met successfully.
13 SMART Goals Examples for Agile Transformation
Below are 13 examples of SMART goals for agile transformation:
1. Improve Team Synergy
“I’ll strive to improve team synergy by encouraging collaboration among team members in each sprint. I’ll lead quarterly meetings to assess how well teams are working together and identify areas of improvement.”
Specific: The aim is to focus on team synergy and collaboration.
Measurable: You could measure the number of collaborative activities between teams and individual members.
Attainable: This is achievable because it focuses on team interactions and activities that can be improved with deliberate effort.
Relevant: Improving team synergy is essential for the success of any project.
Time-based: Quarterly meetings will take place to review progress and evaluate opportunities for improvement.
2. Enhance Communication
“To streamline communications in the organization, I plan to create a clear and transparent communication system by the end of three months. This will include a shared knowledge repository and instant messaging channels for quick queries.”
Specific: This goal states what you want to achieve (create a communication system) and how you plan to do it (by setting up a knowledge repository and instant messaging channels).
Measurable: You can measure the number of knowledge repositories and messaging channels you’ve implemented.
Attainable: Creating a communication system is doable within a three-month time frame.
Relevant: This is essential for agile transformation in any organization.
Time-based: You should have your communication system up and running in three months.
3. Increase Organizational Agility
“Within 9 months, I’ll help create an organizational culture responsive to change by introducing agile methods. I will introduce scrum and Kanban practices to project managers and ensure everybody understands the value of agility and its application in the workplace.”
Specific: The statement is well-defined, detailing the objective and how it will be reached.
Measurable: Organizational agility can be measured by tracking the speed of change in response to internal and external factors.
Attainable: Introducing agile methods and training project managers will help achieve this goal.
Relevant: Given the increasing complexity of today’s business environment, it’s essential to actively manage organizational agility.
Time-based: The SMART goal must be accomplished within 9 months.
4. Establish Agile Governance
“We will create an agile governance framework that outlines all stakeholders’ roles, responsibilities, and decision-making process within four months. This framework will help make sure the organization’s agile transformation is successful and sustainable.”
Specific: The goal is to create an agile governance framework within a defined timeline.
Measurable: Assess the successful implementation of the framework by ensuring all stakeholders’ roles, responsibilities, and decision making are clear.
Attainable: Establishing an agile governance framework within four months is feasible if the team works hard and collaborates.
Relevant: An agile governance framework ensures a successful and sustainable transformation.
Time-based: Goal completion is anticipated after four months.
5. Adopt DevOps Practices
“I intend to introduce DevOps practices into the organization within 6 months. I’ll devise a plan and timeline for introducing these new practices and design a workflow to ensure they are implemented and maintained properly.”
Specific: Introducing DevOps practices are clearly defined above.
Measurable: You can check the number of tools adopted or the increase in automation.
Attainable: Six months is a reasonable time frame to introduce DevOps.
Relevant: This is relevant to the ultimate objective of improving organizational efficiency.
Time-based: This goal should be achievable by the end of 6 months.
6. Integrate Testing Early and Often
“I want our teams to integrate testing early in their feature development cycles within two months. I hope the features we release are high quality, and bugs can be caught before they affect the end user.”
Specific: The team knows exactly which process needs to be implemented.
Measurable: Progress can be monitored and checked for integration of testing.
Attainable: Two months is enough to familiarize teams with the processes and integrate them into their development cycles.
Relevant: This goal is appropriate because it helps teams create better-quality features and catch bugs quickly.
Time-based: The goal has a two-month deadline for completion.
7. Leverage Cloud Services
“Within 6 months, we’ll securely use cloud services to better manage our data, increase collaboration across teams, and reduce reliance on physical infrastructure. That will help us keep up with the ever-changing technology landscape, stay efficient, and save costs.”
Specific: Leveraging cloud services to achieve cost-efficient operations and staying current with the latest tech trends.
Measurable: Keeping track of the increased collaboration and decreased reliance on physical infrastructure.
Attainable: This goal provides an effective way of managing data for the company.
Relevant: Cloud services can help organizations save costs and increase collaboration.
Time-based: This particular goal has a deadline of 6 whole months.
8. Embrace Continuous Improvement
“I’ll implement continuous improvement initiatives across the organization in 7 months. I plan to enhance agile processes and strategies, engage with customers and stakeholders, or test new technologies. By doing this, I hope our teams can have faster product releases and reduce bottlenecks.”
Specific: This is explicit because it focuses on implementing continuous improvement initiatives and enhancing agile processes.
Measurable: You can determine how many continuous improvement initiatives have been implemented.
Attainable: This is possible because the individual has set a realistic timeline to complete this goal.
Relevant: The goal is appropriate, as continuous improvement is important in agile transformation.
Time-based: You should reach success within 7 months.
9. Learn to Adapt Quickly
“I’ll seek information and resources to help my team identify new trends, technologies, and best practices relevant to our business. I will also ensure that the team has access to training and development opportunities to better handle the ever-changing business landscape.”
Specific: The statement is easy to understand. The person must seek information and resources to help the team identify new trends, technologies, and best practices relevant to the business.
Measurable: You will ensure the team has access to training and development opportunities.
Attainable: This is attainable if the team has the necessary resources to execute it.
Relevant: The goal is vital for adapting their business to changing trends and technologies.
Time-based: This is an ongoing goal with no specified timeline. You must continuously strive to gain new information and resources as needed.
10. Improve Risk Management
“I want to establish a risk management team of experts who will assess any risks associated with new agile projects after 10 months. We’ll create a risk management system to identify, prioritize and respond to any risks due to changes in our agile transformation.”
Specific: The goal describes the actions needed to establish a risk management team and system.
Measurable: Ensure the risk management system will be in place after 10 months.
Attainable: Creating a risk management team and the system is achievable with the right resources and planning.
Relevant: Accomplishing this goal will surely help with agile transformation.
Time-based: The goal should be achieved within 10 months.
11. Reduce Technical Debt
“I will reduce the existing technical debt of our organization’s codebase by 20% in 9 months ahead. This includes refactoring and modernizing existing code and focusing on sustainable practices for future development.”
Specific: The individual aims to reduce the existing technical debt of their organization’s codebase.
Measurable: You will regularly assess the amount of debt to measure progress.
Attainable: This is reachable because the individual is taking action to reduce the debt.
Relevant: The goal is appropriate because it will improve the quality of the organization’s codebase.
Time-based: The goal is time-bound because it has a 9-month end date.
12. Increase Software Delivery Speed
“I want to increase software delivery speed by 50% within 8 months. This means I need a team that collaborates effectively and implements process changes such as continuous integration, automated testing, and feature flags.”
Specific: The goal is concise and clear, explaining the desired outcome and how it will be accomplished.
Measurable: You can check the software delivery speed before and after the 8 months.
Attainable: This is achievable by having a team that collaborates effectively and implements the process changes.
Relevant: The goal is appropriate to boost software delivery speed, which will help increase efficiency and productivity.
Time-based: There is a four-month window to reach success.
13. Automate Repetitive Tasks
“I will create solutions to automate repetitive tasks by the end of three months. I want to enable our team to focus more on strategy, customer service, and innovation while increasing efficiency and accuracy.”
Specific: You have precise actions available: create solutions to automate tasks.
Measurable: Make sure you’re on track to having automated solutions in place within three months.
Attainable: Automating repetitive tasks can be difficult, but this is a reasonable goal with enough dedication.
Relevant: Automation will give more time to focus on strategy, customer service, and innovation.
Time-based: You should expect goal attainment within the following three months.
Final Thoughts
Establishing SMART goals for an agile transformation can benefit businesses of all sizes. By following this SMART framework, you’ll be well on your way to an effective transformation.
Remember to break down bigger goals into manageable chunks better suited to the agile methodology. Ultimately, you can achieve organizational success with a little focus and determination.
