AGILITY IN

LATIN AMERICA
2021
A CORE COMPETENCY OF
FLEXIBLE ORGANIZATIONS
contents
Summary 3

01 Introduction 4

02 Study Methodology 5

03 Executive Summary 7

04 Main Conclusions 15

4.1 Agility Adoption Level 16

a) Agility's transversal impact on organizations 16
b) From Technology to HR: areas involved in the transformation 18
c) Benefits and challenges on the agile journey 21
d) New mindset profile 24

4.2 Governance for agility 26

a) Transformation committees, a converging space for leaders on the 26
journey to agility
b) Agility at scale: coordination between teams, programs and 29
portfolios
c) The combination of OKR with QBR, a growing practice of 31
alignment and coordination between agile teams
d) Team characteristics, a decisive factor in defining agile 35
frameworks

4.3 Agile Talent and Culture 36

a) Agile career paths and skill building 36
b) Agile knowledge dissemination in organizations 38
c) The agile professional’s point of view 39

05 Challenges and Trends 41

a) Pending issues for a successful change 42

b) Bound for an agile future: trends 44
Summary
Agility in organizations is a prac-
tice that has gained increasing
relevance over the years. Although
technology-related areas are
among those that most use this
methodology, adopting agile prac-
tices in commercial and operational
areas, as well as in some teams
seeking to improve their processes
and needing to adapt to changes,
is a mindset that has been applied
more frequently in companies.
The visibility of these initiatives
improves with agility, and this ad-
vantage is recognized by around
67% of respondents. In addition, a
relevant factor is the improvement
in product delivery times, according
to 61% of the companies surveyed.
Although cultural issues have
traditionally been a barrier to the
adoption of new processes in
work, this reluctance to change has
diminished in recent years.
However, 53% of respondents still
see some resistance to change,
which needs to be addressed by
leaders and decision-makers.
The coronavirus health crisis
(COVID-19) showed agility's value
on resilience of Latin American
companies since the beginning
of the crisis in March 2020. The
increase in remote work numbers
(75% of the surveyed companies
have adopted this system) has led
many companies that have not yet
gone through the transformation
process to consider agility as a
factor in optimizing performance
and the ability to work remotely.
In this sense, it is noteworthy
that the HR areas associate their
participation in the adoption
of agile practices with cross-
functional teams defined to work in
a transversal strategy.
 Introduction
01
Agility is a trend that has followed
organizations for two decades.
Since its inception with the Ag-
ile Manifest in 2001, agility has
evolved from a technology product
development methodology to be
the core competency of orga-
nizations seeking to adapt to
market changes, in what we call
the core competency of flexible
organizations.
Even though organizations face
many challenges to adopting agility
(such as resistance to change or
talent management) more compa-
nies value its benefits and decide to
adopt agility as a work philosophy.
Agility optimizes delivery times,
makes teams more efficient and
allows professionals to be better
aligned with corporate strategy.
While agility was a growing
trend over the last decade, the
digitization imposed as a result of
the coronavirus (COVID-19) has
made many organizations realize
its potential to develop more
efficient processes and to involve
individuals working remotely. The
benefits of continuous validation
and adaptation of agility prove
to be a good tool for developing
teams with greater involvement
and greater efficiency in work
performance, even remotely.
Faced with a scenario of uncer-
tainty and constant change, with
situations that change at an un-
precedented speed, agility has be-
come a contingency mechanism, a
resilience formula and a crisis man-
agement component. Agility is a
mindset based on values and prin-
ciples, whose purpose is to build
skills aimed to adapting to complex
contexts. Therefore, organizations
that have effectively integrated
agility into their way of working will
have more resources to adapt to a
VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex
and Ambiguous) context and lead
the market.
Study
Methodology
 6

Study
02
Methodology
The study focused on six countries: Mexico
Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil,
Chile and Argentina. A total of 198
respondents were interviewed,
including 82 leaders of agile trans-
formation in Latin American compa- Colombia
Brazil
nies. This edition has also incorporat-
ed a new view by including the opinion
of 116 agility experts (agile coach, Peru

scrum master, CoE leader, etc.).

Seventy percent of companies sur-

veyed belonged to the banking,
telecommunications, energy and Chile

consulting sectors. After conducting

the survey, at least two leaders from
Argentina
each participating country were in-
Study Methodology

terviewed. These interviews aimed at

deepening the qualitative knowledge
and demonstrating its conclusions
with practical cases.

Study sectors
Banking 34%
Consulting 25%
Telecommunications 13%
Professional services 5%
Public utility (energy and utilities) 4%
Mining and quarrying 3.5%
Health (public or private) 3.5%
IT 3%
Automotive 1.5%
Packaged Consumer Goods 1.5%
Retail 1.5%
Insurance 1.5%
Public sector 1%
Transport (air, land, and sea) 1%
Other 0.5%

In this study, the maturity of organizations in applying agility was categorized

according to their time of adoption: 63% have adopted agility for more than
three years now, 70% have transformation offices, and 49% have more than
one quarter of their teams using agile methodologies.
Executive
Summary

03
 8

Executive
03
Summary

In recent years, agility has evolved from a

technology product development meth-
odology to being the core competency of
organizations as it reduces delivery times,
makes teams more efficient and ensures
that professionals are better aligned with
corporate strategy. During the corona-
virus pandemic (COVID-19), agility also
emerged as a resilience mechanism, a
contingency formula, and an element
for crisis management.

To map the degree of agility maturity in

Latin American companies, NTT DATA
and MIT Technology Review, in Spanish,
Executive Summary

released a new edition of the study “Agility

in Latin America." A total of 198 respon-
dents from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bra-
zil, Chile and Argentina participated in the
survey, including 82 agile transformation
leaders and 116 agile experts.

The number of respondents significantly

increased compared to last year, as in
this edition we chose to show the point
of views not only from agile transforma-
tion leaders, but also from agility experts,
who have a real perception of agile per-
formance in the daily routine of the com-
panies. This increase in the number of re-
spondents shows that more organizations
are interested in discussing agility issues.
 9

A growing philosophy

In general, organizations are beginning to

adopt the agile philosophy through pro-
fessionals in the technological areas. In
fact, 90% of the companies interviewed
stated that their IT and/or Software Devel-
opment departments had already adopted
this new way of working.

However, they are no longer the only ones,

as other areas are also adopting agility.
That is, more than one in three human
resources departments, nearly one in
four marketing departments, and about

Executive Summary
one in ten in departments such as fi-
nance, auditing, sales and supply chain
have implemented agile practices.

The study shows that 51% of organiza-

tions have adopted agile practices in one-
fourth of their areas, and one out of four
companies claim that between 26% and
50% of the organization uses agile prac-
tices. These data indicate that compared
to the previous edition, agility permeates
more areas within companies, and it
shows an increase in the agile maturity of
Latin American companies.
 10

Benefits and challenges

on the agile journey

Agility has provided companies with the

necessary flexibility to face the chang-
es in a scenario affected by the health
crisis. Thus, adaptability to the environ-
ment is the main benefit that companies
perceive: 39% of organizations rate this
advantage as 'excellent' and 35% as
'very good'. Other benefits valued by
companies include the improvement in
time-to-market, workplace atmosphere
and customer experience.

Despite these benefits, companies still

face some obstacles to complete their
transformation, mainly related to the
Executive Summary

need for encouragement from leaders.

More than six in ten respondents say that
leadership style is the biggest challenge,
and three in ten say that there is a lack
of involvement from leaders. This lack of
involvement is particularly noticeable in
mid-level positions, which are generally
evaluated with corporate metrics that
consider other indicators related to agil-
ity, which are more difficult to quantify, to
be less important.

The current business culture, the exis-

tence of silos between areas and the re-
sistance to change are other challenges
to be faced, according to about six in
ten organizations. To a lesser degree, the
lack of agile experience or skills and the
lack of training or education on agility are
also obstacles for companies. However,
most companies do not see technology
as an obstacle to adopting agility, but
rather as a spur to change.
 11

Transformation committees, the It is essential to

solution for controlling agility establish criteria
that determine
For establishing the agile strategy, three in
four companies have a centralized trans- the union of
formation office that is responsible for teams to ensure
driving orderly, comprehensive change, organizational agility
focusing on the established goals. Nine-
and optimization
ty one percent of the companies having
centralized offices also have corporate of value streams.
transformation plans to align the entire
organization, ensuring that everyone is
moving in the same direction.

These transformation offices have adopt-

ed a much more strategic role compared
to the last edition of the study, which again
indicates a step towards agile maturity.

Executive Summary
Whereas the focus was once on cultural
change regarding the way of working,
these offices are now directly involved
in business strategy, prioritization and
management.

Coordination between teams

for agile scalability

It is essential to establish some criteria that

determine the union of teams to ensure
organizational agility and optimization of
value streams. The impact of scaling up
agility on business processes is evident,
as it contributes to improving governance
and alignment procedures.

The main criterion used for grouping is

the product or service offered to cus-
tomers, which is used by more than
half of the organizations surveyed. This
represents an increase compared to the
previous edition, when only one in four
companies used this criterion.
 12
Objectives and Key Results &
Quarterly Business Reviews,
a successful combination
In addition to establishing some criteria
for coordinating the teams, two other
tools are essential for scaling up agility:
OKRs and QBRs.
Six in ten companies use OKRs and iden-
tify two main benefits in doing so: better
business alignment and better commu-
nication. The use of these indicators is
widespread among more mature organi-
zations and it is the basis for the journey
towards agility.
One in four companies is already imple-
Executive Summary
menting QBRs and has seen a significant
increase in its application over the last
year. The report also proves that the
correct preparation of OKRs is the key to
the success of QBRs: if these two do not
go hand in hand, the expected alignment
goals will not be achieved.
Budget allocation overhaul,
an unresolved issue
Overhauling budget allocation based
on objectives is one of the practices
that companies should adopt once they
start the Agile journey. Indeed, the very
adoption of agility implies changing the
budget allocation model. For this reason,
in general, it is noted that mature organi-
zations promote this change. Due to this
new model, organizations can optimize
their financial management, prioritize
their spending decisions and consider
factors related to talent management and
the use of technological enablers in their
planning. In order to carry out this over-
haul, agile structures such as the Lean
Portfolio Management are used.
Despite the usefulness of these tools, ac-
cording to the survey results, nearly half
of respondents still have not changed the
way they allocate budgets to agile initia-
tives. Therefore, changing this allocation
model is one of the main tasks that need
to be addressed so that companies can
advance their agile maturity.
 13

Upcoming trends towards an increasingly agile future

Agility made it possible for many companies to adapt to the Volatility,

Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) context. In this context,
the agile trajectory of Latin American companies will be characterized
by five trends:

Scale
Applying the agile philosophy
to other areas of the organi-
zation helps teams to better
manage their priorities, work
progressively and iterative-
ly, and adopt a continuous
improvement mindset so that
agility will continue to scale.
Strategic
Alignment
The pandemic forced compa-
nies to simplify their processes
and operations. Thus, devel-
oping the competencies of a
flexible organization, by apply-
ing the commercial portfolio
management principles that
characterize the agile model,
will be very useful.

Adoption
Three in five companies now
have more than 75% of their
teams working remotely, and
more than half of them plan to
continue adopting the remote
work strategy. Considering
that agility helps improving the
organization of remote teams
to achieve business goals, it is
expected that companies will
continue to adopt agility.
Executive Summary
Cultural Change
It is essential to prevent leaders
from acting like a brake and
help them increase the employ-
ees' confidence, making them
more autonomous and capable
of self-organizing themselves
in an agile company. Moreover,
companies will need to adapt
agile cultural values and prac-
tices to remote work.

Talent Management

Organizations need to make three changes in this regard: attract-

ing professionals with agile skills, finding balance between talent
recruitment and upskilling and reskilling the current workforce, and
providing agile tools specifically tailored for hybrid work.
 14
Study Reflection
Victor Leon, Executive Director of the Agile Center of Excellence -
NTT DATA Latam
Executive Summary
When we started working on this new
edition of the study on agility in Latin
America, one year had passed since the
beginning of the biggest health crisis
in recent times. A crisis that not only
affected our health, but also many other
aspects of our lives.
In the workplace environment, the
adaptability showed by organizations
and professionals was remarkable. We,
who lead agile teams, had to respond
to multiple challenges in a short peri-
od. How do we transfer something we
have been doing on-site for years to a
remote environment in an unpredict-
able situation? What would the new
onboarding process and events look
like for the teams, and what would agile
structures look like? How would budget
constraints be affected? How would
business priorities change?
By completing this study, we can say
with great satisfaction that the advance
in agility promoted by many companies
was one of the crucial factors in facing
such a great transformation. The crisis
tested and proved that ensuring agility
is the best way to adapt in a dynamic
world.
Therefore, the title of the second
edition of the study is “Agility, a core
competency of flexible organizations,"
an expression in which we fully believe
and which is supported by the opinion
of leaders and experts: agility has
become one of the core competencies
that modern organizations must drive
to progress in this new context. We
invite you to analyze the insights and
conclusions that the NTT DATA and
Opinno teams have prepared.
Main
Conclusions

04
 16

Main Conclusions
04

4.1. Agility adoption level

a) Agility's transversal
impact on organizations
The adoption of an agile mindset
continues to have a great impact on
Latin American companies, especially
in terms of the visibility of initiatives.

As noted in the previous edition of the

study, companies notice the impact of
Main Conclusions

agile adoption in many areas. Among

them, the visibility of corporate initia-
tives stands out, as 67% of the organiza-
tions surveyed acknowledged an improve-
ment. Agility also had a significant impact
on the behavior and results of profession-
als: 64% acknowledged an improvement
in the alignment between business and
IT, 63% say that staff trust has increased,
62% say that the ability to manage priori-
ties has improved, and 61% say that there
has been an increase in staff productivity.

Currently, only one in three organizations

(34%) believes that agility has been able
to reduce risks, and 27% believes it
improved cost reduction. This is due
to the fact that transformation in an
agile organization implies an investment
effort to develop employees’ skills and
to acquire tools that enable a change in
their way of working. In this context, it is
noted that trends such as the Lean Port-
folio Management and a good definition of
previous objectives allow visualizing short-
term benefits.

In general, companies consider the
impact of all these benefits to be inferior
in comparison with the previous edition.
For example, the alignment between
business and IT, despite being one
of the concepts where organizations
identified a greater degree of impact
(64%), dropped 30 percentage points
compared to last year.
17
This happens because organizations
have reached a greater degree of matu-
rity in adopting agile practices, so they
better understand the efforts involved
in transformation and disseminate
the needs for change throughout the
company. This broader understanding
of the implications of agility raises
expectations about the results the
organizations will achieve.
Main Conclusions
 18
b) From Technology to HR:
areas involved in the
transformation
Main Conclusions
Technology-related areas continue to
lead the adoption of agility, but the
philosophy appears in many other
areas of the organizations.
In general, organizations are beginning
to adopt the agile philosophy through
professionals in the technological areas.
Indeed, 90% of the companies inter-
viewed stated that their IT and/or Soft-
ware Development departments had
already adopted this new way of working.
In general, organizations are beginning to
adopt the agile philosophy through their
technology professionals. Thus, 43% of
the Innovation areas and 39% of the Data
& Analysis areas have adopted a new
mindset.
Meanwhile, 35% of Human Resources
(HR) departments have adopted agility.
This area plays a key role in agile trans-
formation, as it is responsible for devel-
oping talents and is the meeting point for
professionals from different areas. Thus,
despite being fundamental enablers of
digital transformation, the technology-re-
lated areas are the ones that actually lead
the transformation.
Almost one in four Marketing depart-
ments of the organizations surveyed have
adopted agility, and about one in ten
organizations implemented it in areas
such as Finance, Auditing, Sales and
Supply Chain. These more traditional
areas are beginning to adopt the knowl-
edge that the more advanced areas have
acquired through experimentation and
validated learning.

In general, the areas of Technology,
HR and Agile CoEs (Agile Centers of
Excellence), present in more mature
companies, support their profession-
als with a more flexible work culture so
that they adopt agility as a way to achieve
their goals and not as a means to do so:
instead of guiding the rigorous adoption
of work structures, they should guide
Emerging practices
To increase awareness of agility
and provide tools for all areas,
teams and projects that wanted
to participate in this experience, a
prominent Brazilian company has
adopted a specific communication
strategy through cloud-based
platforms, whose main focus is
the collaboration between teams.
In general terms, a workgroup
created on this platform shares
announcements about events,
training and other specific contents
on a certain topic to inform all its
users and motivate them to change.
19
the implementation of practices that
help them achieve their main objectives
and results. Although agility is becoming
increasingly popular in organizations, in
fact, not all areas adopt agile practices
in their entirety, and less technology-re-
lated areas learn the general concept and
apply what is of interest to them accord-
ing to their needs.
Main Conclusions
A leading bank in the Andean
region has two pillars to train its
professionals in agility: the HR
department and an Agile Center of
Excellence formed by specialists
from the technical areas with greater
experience in agile frameworks,
practices and techniques. Each
pillar performs different tasks. While
HR is responsible for basic training
and training coordination, the
technical areas guide fellow workers
in applying agile practices from the
guidance of an agile coach.
 20

About 51% of organizations surveyed reported that companies are applying

agility in up to a quarter of their areas. Meanwhile, one in four organizations
states, regarding 26-50% of their structure, that they already work with agile
practices. This is a significant increase in comparison with the last edition of the
study, where only 16% applied agility. Thus, there was a notable increase in
the agile maturity of organizations.
Main Conclusions

0% - 25% 26% - 50% 51% - 75% 76% - 100%

Considering that companies focus, at an early stage, on adopting agility in their

Technology area, the degree of agile maturity is characterized by its imple-
mentation in other areas of the companies. In this regard, it is noted that orga-
nizations that have been applying agility for more than six years show a more
balanced adoption between the different non-technical areas. In other words,
once companies adhere to the agile trend, they progressively integrate it into
different departments.
 21

c) Benefits and challenges

on the agile journey

Main Conclusions
1. Main benefits

Agility was an organizations' best Emerging practices

ally during the pandemic: adaptabil-
ity, time-to-market acceleration and
improved customer experience. A large telecommunications
company was able to significantly
The coronavirus pandemic disrupted reduce its time-to-market in 2020
business reality and forced companies by adopting agility, which enabled
to adapt to a new scenario. Therefore, it to maintain customer satisfaction
adaptability to changes in the envi- despite the challenges of the
ronment, as in the case of the current pandemic in this area.
health crisis, is the main agility benefit for
companies. So much so that 39% of the
organizations surveyed rate adaptabili-
ty as 'excellent' and another 35% rate it
as 'very good'.
A leading Brazilian bank decided
Within the banking sector, the percep- to train 6,000 of its professionals
tion of this benefit has been increasing, on the agile philosophy, due to the
with almost half of respondents rating pandemic, to allow the company
this skill as 'excellent' and 30% as 'very to adapt more quickly to the new
good'. The current health crisis has there- scenario.
fore led organizations to value flexibility
over other benefits.
 22
Following adaptability, the second benefit
that companies perceive as relevant is the
improvement in time-to-market, since
agility makes it possible to accelerate
the launch of products or services. About
21% of companies rated this factor as
'excellent' and 40% as 'very good'. This
was precisely one of the main benefits
noted in the previous edition of the study.
Agility also provides a better working
atmosphere for employees, a factor
rated as 'excellent', which is the highest
rating, by 20% of organizations, while
39% rated it as 'very good'. This improve-
Main Conclusions
ment in the professional environment has
an impact on team productivity, which
is why companies are already improving
their internal processes thanks to agility.
Finally, the fourth most valued benefit is
improved customer experience, with
16% of companies rating it as 'excellent'
and 44% as 'very good'. This shows that
organizations have reached an advanced
level of maturity, which allows them to
place the customer at the core of their
activities.

2. Main challenges
Leadership style and lack of involve-
ment from business leaders, the main
obstacle to an agile transformation.
Despite all these benefits, companies
continue to face challenges to complete
their transformation, mainly due to lack
of buy-in from senior management. More
than six in ten respondents said that
leadership style is the biggest obstacle
to completing the transformation. In addi-
tion, three in ten respondents believe a
lack of leadership buy-in, which results
in a lack of incentive for change in the
organization.
In general, this lack of involvement was
observed in the mid-level manage-
ment, as they are evaluated by tradi-
tional metrics exclusively related to the
business. Therefore, the tendency is to
give less importance to Agile methodol-
ogy metrics; not so much because they
do not address the business itself, but
because of the difficulty (or novelty) in
quantifying the impact on the business:
customer added value, collaboration,
market learning based on customer feed-
back, continuous delivery, and so on.
On the other hand, corporate culture
continues to be a major barrier to trans-
formation, according to more than
six in ten companies. This is because
companies with a hierarchical structure
and a more traditional corporate culture
have greater problems in adopting agility.
For example, in engineering companies,
it is more difficult to break organizational
structures and patterns. Such an obsta-
cle is related to two other barriers identi-
fied by about six in ten organizations: the
existence of silos between areas and
resistance to change.
23
The lack of experience or skills in agility
and lack of training or education on this
philosophy are other challenges iden-
tified by companies, although of lesser
importance. As a result, it is often the
teams that take the initiative and begin
to implement their practices, although
this does not allow for the internalization
and application of all the principles of this
philosophy.
To conclude, it is noteworthy that only
two in ten companies consider the lack
of technological enablers as an obstacle,
and this is precisely the obstacle identi-
fied by the fewest number of organiza-
Main Conclusions
tions. In other words, most companies
realize that technology is not a barrier
to adopting agility. Just as agility can
enable the adoption of up-to-date tech-
nological tools that ensure greater flexi-
bility, it can also enable change. Orga-
nizations that are managing to enable
a catalog of technological services
throughout the company, with tools that
complement each other, take advantage
of the latest technologies to improve effi-
ciency, such as the use of clouds. Estab-
lishing a simplified, efficient, and up-to-
date technological base accelerates agile
transformation.
Main Conclusions 24

d) New mindset profile

Self-organization, continuous improve-
ment and flexibility in changing priorities
are the keys to achieving a new mindset.

Adopting agility involves changing some

of the aspects that define the business
daily routine. On this topic, more than half
of respondents affirm to incorporating
both self-organization and the capacity
for continuous improvement. This is a
change from the previous study: while
last year the teams' ability to organize
themselves autonomously was an
opportunity, it is now one of the main
characteristics of agile teams.

Flexibility in changing priorities is the
third factor in which companies have
made the most progress. This flexibility is
a consequence of the alignment between
top-down and bottom-up, which also
reflects the advance in the agile maturity
of the companies. Shared responsibility,
regular product delivery, communication
and motivation are other characteristics
where organizations are making prog-
ress, albeit to a lesser degree.
However, 46% of organizations show
an intermediate-high level of maturity
in relation to individuals and culture,
while strengthening their teams with the
information and tools necessary for deci-
sion making. The culture of organizations
naturally changes with the results of agile
practices.
25
Leadership and new ways of
working are both indicators of
agile maturity.
The results of this study also show that
organizations with the highest degree
of agile maturity are those that have
adopted the new ways of working and
assumed a Lean and Agile leadership.
Leaders are ultimately responsible for
the success of adopting an agile philos-
ophy; therefore, companies are focusing
on empowering their leaders in new and
innovative ways of thinking, enabling not
only the adoption of the agile philosophy,
but also its dissemination to other areas
of the organization.
Main Conclusions
To conclude, companies have also taken
on the roles of an agile organization:
scrum master, agile coach, product
owner, development team, and CoE lead-
er are, in that order, the five most devel-
oped professional roles.
 26

4.2. Governance for agility

a) Transformation committees,
a converging space for leaders
on the journey to agility
Agile Governance, the most important
advantage in work organization during
the pandemic year.

Currently, more companies are opting

for agility as a work philosophy. For
this reason, they must have a transfor-
mation office that facilitates this adap-
tation. According to this study, three in
four companies have a transformation
office dedicated to agile strategy
and its execution. About 91% of these
companies have corporate transfor-
mation plans, that is, transversal plans
that promote alignment throughout the
Main Conclusions

company to move towards the common

purpose of transformation.

Thus, as in the last edition, it is noted
that companies have agility as a funda-
mental pillar of their transformation
plans, although this is not the only one.
The governance of these plans through
transformation offices is one of the
most successful emerging practices in
driving more successful, far-reaching
and future-oriented changes by compa-
nies. It’s no surprise that these agile
transformation offices serve as the
link between traditional businesses
and agile operations, being critical to
companies’ digital transformation plans.
Compared to the last edition, there has
also been significant evolution in agile
governance considering the role played
by these transformation offices. In
the past, their focus was on the cultural
sphere: they promoted changes in the
way of working, enabling new agile skills
27
within the company. Currently, these
offices have a much more strategic role,
as they are involved in defining busi-
ness strategy, prioritization and gover-
nance, as well as creating structures to
define which other areas should adopt
the philosophy and how the adoption
process should be.
Companies with transformation offices
are also the ones that have experienced
the greatest evolution. According to the
study results, the digital transformation
committee continues to lead the strate-
gy in 40% of companies. 75% of these
companies have been adopting agility
for over three years. In other words, the
creation of these committees show a
higher maturity level in the adoption of
agility and represents a benchmark for
those that are taking their first steps.
Main Conclusions
 28
Meanwhile, the Technology area is
becoming more important as a leader
for agile transformation in organizations,
according to 16% of all respondents. In
addition, almost all companies that have
been adopting agility over the past five
years emphasize the leadership of this
department.
The HR department, however, continues
to be a relevant driver in the agility trans-
formation and governance process, since
this area fosters talent and new skills in
the organization to ensure a correct agili-
ty dissemination.
In turn, the Business and Management
areas are more involved in monitoring
the results of programs and projects
Main Conclusions
that were adopted with the practice of
agility. About 10% of the companies in
the study have a governance model that
reports directly to executive levels.
Two ways of designating governance
are also presented: the first one is through
a combination of areas including those
mentioned above (General Management,
lines of business, HR, Technology and
Digital Transformation Committees) or
through Centers of Excellence (CoEs),
which are increasingly used to align an
agile strategy in the organization.
This evolution was possible because the
participating companies moved from
team agility to organizational agility.
The need for delivery or execution to
understand the business, and for the
business itself to understand the pace of
the teams in the organization’s day-to-
day activities, led to a combination of
different practices. Latin American
companies have started to adopt more
agile paces: they make decisions, prior-
itize and balance skills more often now.
Teams and programs also understand
the business better and can focus on
creating value.
 29

b) Agility at scale: coordination between

teams, programs and portfolios
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), the preferred scheduling structure in
companies

In terms of agility at scale, the study indicates that 45% of respondents trust SAFe
(Scaled Agile Framework) as the basis for their transformation strategy, which
demonstrates a significant growth when compared to the data obtained in the
2020 study. Below is the tribe model, with 26% adoption, is less relevant now than
it was in the previous edition.

To achieve
agility at the
organizational
level and optimize
the value streams
of each company,
the main challenge

Main Conclusions
is to define how to
group the teams.
 30
To achieve agility at the organization-
al level and optimize the value streams
of each company, the main challenge
is to define how to group the teams.
Therefore, the grouping criterion that
was chosen represents one of the most
important decisions on the path to orga-
nizational agility. The impact such group-
ing will have on business processes to
achieve scale agility is enormous: it will
help with the governance procedures and
alignments needed to make this scale
possible and to overcome barriers and
imbalances.
More than half of the organizations
Main Conclusions
surveyed in this study use the product
or service offered to customers as a
ranking criterion, followed by customer
journey and journey of technology
enablers. This represents greater use of
the product criterion for team alignment.
In the previous edition, about one in four
companies used this same approach.
Thus, organizations are preparing to
offer the greatest possible value to their
customers, so that they can remain rele-
vant in the market.
In relation to scaling, it is also essential
to measure the business’ operating
results. The OKRs (Objectives and Key
Results), which will be detailed in the next
section, represent one of the paths that
is most used by more mature companies
in Latin America and are an important
catalyst for continuous transformation
and expansion. To facilitate their defini-
tion, well-structured value streams with
common criteria should be created.
 31

c) The combination of OKR

and QBR, a growing practice
of alignment and coordination
between agile teams
The importance of OKRs in adopting Emerging practices
organizational agility has been a clear
trend over the last months.

OKRs are a regular process that has
brought a different organizational dynam-
ic to companies seeking to develop
agility as a core competency and have
become a primary technique for busi-
ness alignment. According to the study,
six in ten companies surveyed use OKRs
and 40% say that they need six months
to implement them.
The topics discussed in the study
interviews prove that the digital,
technology or business areas that
have adopted and matured in agil-
ity operate at a different pace
compared to the rest of the orga-
nization.

The most notable benefits of its appli-

cation include the business alignment,

Main Conclusions
according to about half of companies
that affirm to use OKR, and improved
strategy communication, which is
an advantage according to four in ten
companies.

On the other hand, only half of the

companies that affirm to use OKRs do
so transversally, by involving the entire
company to establish metrics. The other
half uses it in specific groups, such as
tribes or communities within the orga-
nization.
 32
In terms of how OKRs work, they are
increasingly transparent(organizations
measure their skills, prioritize things
clearly, and pinpoint the greatest value
to customers). Nevertheless, the positive
impact that the use of OKRs can have
across the organization may also be limit-
ed. Considering that this methodology for
defining objectives and key results must
be promoted from the executive board
or the management committee itself, its
qualities no longer have the expected
impact and its application loses its
planned value if it is isolated in certain
departments.
Finally, there is also a strong relationship
between the implementation of the
OKRs and the existence of a corporate
transformation plan. Nine in ten compa-
nies that use the OKR methodology
already have a transversal transformation
Main Conclusions
plan in which agility is an important pillar.
Emerging practices
The use of OKRs alone is proving to
be a partial solution for those who
have not yet managed to extend
some agile practices across the
organization. The impact of OKRs
is exponentially improved when
they are applied across the orga-
nization. Nearly one in three survey
respondents who use OKRs at
corporate level report benefits
such as greater strategic clarity,
easier disclosure of plans across
all areas and operating levels, and
alignment in decision making.
OKRs are widely used by mature orga-
nizations and provide a vital foundation
for companies to take another step
towards business agility. In this edition
of the study we can see how the QBRs
(Quarterly Business Reviews) are report-
ing successful cases among the more
mature companies and in a large scale.
It is also noted that the use of OKRs is a
necessary condition for activating QBRs:
if they do not go hand in hand, the areas
will experience some lack of commitment
and the alignment goal they pursue will
not be achieved.
The QBR process, one of the
most effective practices for
alignment in organizations.
Last year, the use of QBR was wide-
spread among more mature organizations
and became a key tool for coordinating
efforts, aligning strategies and manag-
ing skill optimally across the companies.
One in four companies surveyed declares
to be implementing the practice of QBRs.
QBR is a process including actions for
preparation, development and results
that usually differ from every organization.
Despite the great benefits reported by
the companies interviewed in this study,
they will not achieve the expected results
if the QBR is not applied correctly. The
use of QBRs should involve the whole
business, otherwise they are not as
effective in aligning strategies, metrics
and allocation of resources to deliver
customer value.

In organizations where the QBR process
has been adopted, there is an almost
unanimous consensus that the biggest
challenge is its preparation. It is
common to carry out a good pre-work
involving all stakeholders, but not
everyone prepares in the same way.
At this moment, additional challeng-
es appear, such as the fact that not all
areas are at the same level of maturity, or
simply that different leaders understand
their key results differently.
As previously mentioned, the success of
the QBRs is directly contingent on the
correct development of OKRs, aligned
with the business strategy. This step
represents the other major challenge in
preparing the QBRs, as it will depend
largely on the agile maturity of the differ-
ent areas, which is generally unbalanced.
Although this is a big challenge, several
organizations have already managed to
adapt their own preparation processes.
Use of OKR with QBR, and the point of view of the banking sector
OKR
OKR Banking sector
(68 banks in total)
33
Finally, and despite the growth of QBRs,
Colombia, Argentina and Brazil stand
out as the countries where they are least
applied.
Emerging practices
The analysis extracted from the
study showed that the use of
OKRs in conjunction with QBRs
is an emerging practice. Sixty
percent of organizations surveyed
use OKRs and 37% of them also
use QBRs. Furthermore, this is
strongly stressed in the banking
sector, where 76% of respondents
use OKRs and 56% of them also
use QBRs.
Main Conclusions
QBR
QBR Banking sector
(52 banks in total)
 34
Emerging practices
In the Andean region, we found
both a leader in the banking
sector and a telecommunications
company that managed to get the
whole business to accelerate the
pace of execution of QBRs, and
they state that the benefit begins
to be perceived when the whole
business shares the preparation
and the event systematically. In
addition, they confirm that the level
of understanding between the
areas, the alignment of strategies
and the expected results have
improved. However, a leading
telecommunications company in
the Southern Cone region points
out that they are still not getting the
results they could expect from this
Main Conclusions
practice because not all areas are
applying it. Regarding the previous
study, and despite the growth in the
use of QBRs, Colombia, Argentina
and Brazil are the least developed.
Budget allocation is the biggest
obstacle to agile escalation across
the organization
During the agility escalation in large orga-
nizations, one aspect they tend to post-
pone is budget allocation. Specifically in
this study, almost half of respondents
have not changed the way they allo-
cate budgets for agile initiatives in their
organizations. It is noteworthy that 11%
of organizations surveyed use agile struc-
tures such as Lean Portfolio Management
to allocate budgets. In addition, 64% of
the surveyed organizations that use
Lean Portfolio Management for budget
allocation also use SAFe as a frame-
work to scale agility.
However, one of the best practices of
organizations that are more advanced
in agility is replanning their budget
allocation based on objectives, which
allows them to improve financial
management and prioritize decisions.
Organizations that use agile structures
to allocate budgets have other key
components in their sights, such as talent
management and fostering technology
enablers, which are critical to consolidate
the scale model.
On the other hand, the benefits of agil-
ity diminish when compared to more
traditional management processes:
issues such as administrative approvals
and budgeting dampen the motivation
and enthusiasm of teams that embrace
agility. For all the reasons mentioned,
budget allocation is a fundamental
component to consolidate the scale
model in organizations and one of the
biggest challenges to be faced.
Considering these problems, there are
several successful cases around the
world regarding the application of the
Beyond Budgeting philosophy, which
bets on flexibility in order to improve
each process. In essence, it manages to
improve the resource allocation policy,
which is more suited to the purpose than
to the forecast and allows for alignment
with the business and the autonomy of
the teams. Although it is not one of the
most widespread philosophies in Latin
America, the Beyond Budgeting philos-
ophy it is one of the most aligned with
agility and can be expected to eliminate
many of the issues we find today in orga-
nizations that are committed to scaling
the agile model.

d) Team characteristics, a
decisive factor in defining
agile frameworks
Greater maturity in company agility
thanks to the new balance between
Scrum and Kanban.
Considering that the main decision vari-
ables when choosing a work framework
are the team’s objective, the service it
offers to the organization and the level of
agreement with stakeholders, the team
characteristics are an essential factor for
making this choice.
Eight in ten companies use Scrum,
closely followed by Kanban. In the last
edition, Scrum was already the domi-
nant tool, which shows that its use has
become more balanced.
As in the previous study, this continues
to indicate the implementation of agile
35
resources, in addition to development
projects. When adopted in more proce-
dural and continuous workflow manage-
ment areas, Kanban eased the adoption
of agile behaviors.
In relation to this extension of agile prac-
tices, models that complement different
frameworks such as Scrumban are posi-
tioned as the most widely used solution
among teams.
Also notable is the evolution in the cata-
log of frameworks used among the
companies participating in the study,
since such companies have become
more mature regarding the way they
select frameworks. In addition, there
has been an increase in the catalog of
frameworks, each one being applicable
to a different type of activity and general-
ly meeting the teams' level of knowledge
Main Conclusions
about the problem and the solution.
 36

4.3. Agile Talent and Culture

a) Agile career paths

and skill building
In this new edition of the study, the
need for clarity in career paths is also
one of the most notable symptoms of
increased maturity.

Creating career paths for agility roles

and taking them to the next level in the
organizational structure are solutions to
avoid the tension they stated to feel in the
previous study. This tension arises espe-
cially between internal worker profiles
that have been reskilled and are evaluat-
ed in the traditional way, while day-to-day
results point to other metrics.

On the other hand, there are also some

Main Conclusions

cases in which the organization solved

the problems and finally managed
to generate greater understanding
between agility professionals without
making any substantial changes in
structures, career paths, etc. Compa-
nies that shared the challenge and bene-
fits of agility with those involved have
achieved an acceptable level of comfort
for them. In this case, the benefits are
intangible, as we are talking about the
impact individuals have on their organi-
zation and the rewards related to respon-
sibility, involvement and motivation.

Emerging practices

A spokesperson for a leading company in the Southern Cone and Andean region
says that “our agile professionals have been able to see beyond their work, as they
can constantly see their impact on the organization and this results in new opportu-
nities to generate that impact with greater responsibility, bringing knowledge to other
individuals and areas. In addition to wanting to be clear about their position (what
they do), they understand the importance of their performance and this is no longer
a barrier (if it ever was).”
 37

The development of agile talents and skills

is still generally presented as a combi-
nation of internal upskilling and the
acquisition of external talents. However,
regardless of strategy, generally all orga-
nizations choose to outsource positions
such as scrum masters and agile coach-
es, aiming at incorporating knowledge
into the organization without making basic
mistakes. For outsourcing, the models
continue to be a combination of the
fixed-price and the time and materials
model, the most common in companies
with a corporate transformation plan.

Finally, in eight out of ten cases, the in-

volvement of external worker profiles
does not exceed 50% of the efforts
made in agile structures.

Main Conclusions
The need for more agile profes-
sional profiles: Latin America chal-
lenges

Transformation teams with lower budgets

have a limited ability to produce real trans-
formation impacts. Profiles trained within
the organization are increasingly sought
after abroad, which increases the need for
significant retention efforts.

The COVID-19 pandemic had an unex-

pected effect on organizations across
Latin America. Migration to remote work-
ing has made it easier for agile profession-
als to open up to the foreign market, which
is generally better paid, considering the
instability of this economy in recent years.
This represents an additional challenge for
organizations, which must take measures
to retain talent in an increasingly compet-
itive market.
 38
b) Agile knowledge
dissemination in organizations
Main Conclusions
Key elements to spread agility in
organizations: inspiration, results and
efficient tools.
When it comes to inspiring the rest of the
organization, it’s crucial to show results,
even if they aren’t fully understood at first.
Once this is achieved, agility becomes
a very attractive work philosophy for
many areas. Thus, several companies in
this study are able to generate an impact
and implement agility in the Risk, Audit-
ing and Finance areas, which seek great-
er transparency and collaboration within
their own verticals to improve their time
and deliver value to the organization.
In terms of knowledge, each company
manages to do this in one way or anoth-
er. Among the more mature companies,
corporate universities are beginning
to gain momentum , as they already
have a defined structure and a catalog of
methodologies for each situation. In addi-
tion, a frequently used solution is holding
workshops combined with on-the-job
training.
In this second way, the support of
an agile coach, whether internal or
external, makes the difference to take
advantage of the knowledge generat-
ed within the organization.
In turn, the game manual, the onboard-
ing kit or the playbook continues to be
crucial elements to facilitate this unfold-
ing of knowledge and is often particularly
useful in setting the team (roles, events
and tools) wanting to adopt the agility.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic
promoted the creation of e-learning plat-
forms within companies and self-train-
ing has been particularly encouraged to
unleash the agile professionals' skills in
areas of greater commercial value.
In the case of international companies,
the creation of global CoEs (Centers
of Excellence) makes particular
sense. Although its implementation is
complicated in its more agile and mature
subsidiaries, there is a general expec-
tation of a positive impact on aligning
practices and leveraging highly special-
ized skills.

c) The agile professional’s
point of view
Agile specialists with experience in
the company, required profile and with
their own needs.
Professionals who have been working
with the company for a long time and
have also become agile specialists
thanks to the upskilling processes under-
taken by the organization are a key link
in the transformation of the organization
as a whole. On one hand, they know
the company’s business, processes and
history, and on the other hand, they know
the specific agile mindset that the organi-
zation has implemented. As a result, they
are, together with external agile profes-
sionals, one of the profiles increasingly
sought after and valued by the market.
However, not everyone is satisfied with
their new roles: two out of five respon-
dents see restructuring, new job defini-
tions and power shifts as a major chal-
lenge for organizations. The shift from
being a product manager or a manager to
being a product owner or a scrum master
causes them to lose visibility in terms of
their career paths, what is expected from
them, or what metrics are used to eval-
uate them. Therefore, it is essential that
companies address these concerns and
make employees aware of the benefits of
their new path.
39
With some differences, agile leaders
and agile experts share a common
view about the impact of change on
the organization.
To understand the
difference in the profiles
involved in the study, it is
necessary to consider the
action plans in which they
operate. Transformation
process leaders operate
at executive board
(strategy) level while
agile practitioners
operate at team, training,
or execution level.
Main Conclusions
Agile leaders and experts share some
insights on how agile adoption has
affected the organization. However, they
focus on different aspects. For example,
the experts have a view that is more
optimistic than that of the leaders on the
degree of empowerment they give their
teams. Leaders are closer to the teams,
so they have a more realistic view.
When comparing their opinions on flex-
ibility, continuous improvement and
frequent delivery, the view of the agile
experts is a little less optimistic than
that of the leaders. Knowledge of the
practice is, again, the reason we found
for such a difference: leaders may have
a global view, so they may be making the
real impact relative and, consequently,
valuing these three aspects more posi-
tively.
 40
Leaders are also a little more optimis-
tic about the results achieved with
agility. It is not surprising that the latter
spend much of their time teaching others
who are not familiar with this philosophy,
so they see less alignment between
the goals they pursue and the results
achieved by the organization.
Leaders see organizational silos as the
biggest obstacle, while agile experts
see cultural change as the main chal-
lenge.
Both leaders and agile experts agree on
the main challenges to change, such as
leadership style or the need for a new
organizational culture. However, they
do not agree on the degree to which
they are concerned about this change
in culture. For leaders, it ranks third, but
agile experts see it as the main obstacle.
Main Conclusions
In turn, leaders see silos between areas
as the main obstacle to the agile trans-
formation process of their company and,
contrarily, agile specialists rank it fourth.
These two points may be due to the fact
that, in general, leaders are more resis-
tant to change and do not feel the need
for transformation as strongly.
However, both agile professionals and
leaders see the need to manage talent
and consolidate scale models as two
other challenges. This shows that orga-
nizations need to address the restruc-
turing of career paths and define new
governance models that will allow them
to continue their commitment to agility.
Finally, there are conflicting views on
other challenges. While the agile experts
attach great importance to fostering
culture, the leaders, who have a more
transversal view, choose to strength-
en technological enablers. Both views
are reconcilable, but they must coexist:
the involvement of teams is critical for
change and technologies are a funda-
mental tool for this change to materialize.
Challenges and
Trends

05
 42

Challenges
05
and Trends

a) Pending issues for

successful change
Talent management, consolidation of
the scale model, and cultural trans-
formation are the biggest challenges
for organizations in applying the agile
philosophy.

In the previous edition of the study, resis-

tance to change by its members was the
main challenge faced by organizations.
Challenges and Trends

However, this resistance is no longer

among the most relevant outstanding
challenges. In this study, 62% of the
companies considered talent manage-
ment, which includes the recruitment,
development and retention of profes-
sionals trained in the agile philosophy,
as the biggest challenge faced by their
organizations.

In second place there is the consolida-

tion of the scale model, a challenge
identified by 57% of companies. This
shows that organizations have matured
agility in certain teams, areas or projects
and are currently looking for new models
that better adapt to their needs.

In turn, 53% of companies continue to

face challenges related to corporate
culture. To address them, it is crucial
to overcome leadership resistance and
break the silos.
 43

Measurement to drive continuous

improvement and innovation,
the main obstacle to achieving

Challenges and Trends

maturity in the agile environment.

To adopt the agile mindset, it is essen- Only 11.4% of the organizations

tial to have a culture of experimentation consider that they are at the highest
based on validated learning, where the level of innovation maturity, that is, they
hypotheses, testing, metrics and learning have a regular flow of ideas and experi-
phases are followed to ensure continuous ments and errors are positively perceived.
improvement. However, only 11.4% of
companies consider that they are at the
highest level of maturity in this contin-
uous improvement. The biggest chal-
lenge for organizations is to measure
results: moving from measuring results
from an annual to a monthly basis implies
a shift in paradigm and a new composi-
tion of indicators.

In fact, more mature organizations

are establishing concrete metrics that
provide them with information about
how they can evolve externally, to help
improve the customer experience, and
internally, to increase employee motiva-
tion.
 44

b) Bound for an agile future: trends

Scale, agility adoption and strategic alignment will characterize the next
steps for organizations.

To face the obstacles and challenges analyzed throughout the study and continue
advancing along the agile path, the Latin American companies surveyed will follow
five trends that will define their next course:

1. Scale

Both agile professionals and leaders are aware that agility must
cover other areas of the organization in addition to the IT teams, and
it must be applied to other departments, projects and processes.
More areas such as HR, Marketing and Finance are adopting
some of the agile practices. Organizations have realized that
applying the agile philosophy to other areas helps teams better
manage their priorities, work incrementally and iteratively, and
have a mindset of continuous improvement that is open to change
Challenges and Trends

and innovation. Expanding the model across the organization will

therefore be one of the next steps.

2. Adopting Agility

Organizations that have been adopting agility for less than one
year value it as an engine for team communication, empowerment
and goal achievement. Another observation is that three in five
companies have more than 75% of their teams working
remotely today. More than half of these companies are considering
continuing this remote work strategy. Agility helps improve the
organization of remote teams to achieve business objectives,
therefore, companies are expected to increase their adoption
of agile practices and increasingly benefit from the improvements
that companies in an early stage of agile maturity are experiencing.
 45

3. Strategic Alignment

The pandemic forced organizations to simplify their processes and

operations. In this regard, developing the skills of an adaptable
organization allows companies to better adapt to the current
context: due to the application of the business portfolio management
principles that characterize the agile model, they will be able to
prioritize the initiatives with greater value contribution, maintain
efficiency and improve their adaptation. Tools like the Lean Portfolio
Management help address the growing need for balancing the
organizations’ portfolios of initiatives.

4. Cultural Change

As discussed, resistance from leaders is one of the main challenges

in spreading agility throughout the organization. This philosophy
provides all employees with autonomy to make decisions and the
ability to self-organize themselves. For this to happen, it is essential

Challenges and Trends

that leaders are confident that they are acting in the company’s
interests. Therefore, it is essential to make this change in mindset
happen.

An additional need resulted from the pandemic: preserving and

adapting agile practices, values and principles in remote work.
Organizations must therefore use agility to allow remote workers to
maximize their productivity.

5. Talent Management

Investing time and resources to attract talent with agile skills

is another need for companies, especially in this new scenario.
However, a balance between upskilling and reskilling of the current
workforce must be achieved, eliminating the silos between the
business units and the number of different activities performed
by the same professional, in addition to hiring external talents. In
addition, there is the task of providing agile tools and knowledge
specifically tailored to the new hybrid way of working.

In summary, scale, agility adoption, strategic alignment, cultural change and talent
management are the top five trends that will guide organizations in the near future as
they continue to move forward on the agile journey.
MIT Technology Review in Spanish

Miguel Ángel Foces Vivancos

Senior Project Manager - Opinno Latam
miguel.foces@opinno.com

María de Lourdes Pérez Carvajal

Innovation and Strategy Consultant - Opinno Latam
marilourdes.perez@opinno.com

Jorge Andrés Crespo

Innovation and Strategy Consultant - Opinno Latam
jorge.andres@opinno.com

NTT DATA

Victor Leon Marambio

Executive Director of the Agile Center of Excellence - NTT DATA Latam
victor.leon@nttdata.com

Alejandro A. Hernández H.
Agile Coach/Center of Excellence (CoE) Consultant - NTT DATA Latam
alejandro.alberto.hernandez.hernandez@nttdata.com

The MIT Technology Review in Spanish is the translated edition of the MIT
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