SUBMITTED TO: MISS BILQEES GHANI

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NOOR US SUBHA

20191–26628

SUBMITTED TO: MISS BILQEES GHANI

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

I believe that this article essentially highlights the importance of agile and how it is

transforming the work patterns in this dynamic corporate world. However, I have evaluated the

author has just shed light on the developed organizations like IBM, GE etc. Agile is basically

concerned with the development of software and project management that are focused to

deliver value to the clients of any firm. In the beginning, the author has commented that the

practices and methodologies that agile offers are not limited or bounded to a certain area or

any specific department instead it has provided its services ranging from larger scale operations

or departmental stages such as marketing, development of product to routine operations or

functions like recruiting people and their management. The author has rightly commented on

the agile practices being extended. This article is based on real world examples with complete

evidences of organizations that have adopted agile methods and transformed their cultures and

ways of working. I am of the opinion that this evidence-based article is of great importance

since the corporate world has undergone a dynamic and uncertain situation. This article and

the examples are a roadmap for the local organizations of how can they overcome uncertainty.

On the other hand, I believe that technology is a two-edged weapon. It needs to be utilized

properly otherwise it can result as a legal liability for organizations.

I believe that the idea that agile is becoming a new norm for the organizations has been

supported in a concrete manner. Organizations have realized the importance of Agile and how

it can digitalize every operation in an efficient manner. Since with the passage of time, every

field has observed a rising usage of technological tools to be creative and ahead of others, I am

of the opinion that the point of author is justified. Agile is basically one of the many tools for

taking the organizations towards organized and coordinated approach. I believe that on the

other hand, it requires recruitment of proactive workers and high training costs in order to

make the employees familiar with the changes.

After that, the author indicates that the agile practices are widely adopted in HR practices.

However, the practices and methods adopted for routine operations do not constitute all the

tools of the software. Despite of that, many of the methods of Agile are seamlessly carried out

in HR practices that it can also be referred to as “agile lite” meaning a lighter version of agile

that contains some protocols of the software but not all. I believe that the author`s evaluation

is limited to developed countries as there are a lot of underdeveloped countries which do not

The author has made a shift by highlighting that what were the conventional ways of HR and

how these practices are modifying the processes from grass root levels. I partially agree with

the planning statement since I think that planning for shorter term in which employees can

attain difficult but achievable task is important as it eliminates the factor of uncertainty. Long

term planning in this era can lead to losses obviously .The statement represents the importance

of Agile and shows that it has provided the businesses a complete shift from conventional

methods to newer and modern ways. The author, in my opinion, is emphasizing on the

importance of Agile by contrasting it from the conventional methods so that the advantages are

clear. People usually realize the importance of something when they find value in it and

betterment of their current condition. It shows that the traditional or conventional HR was

completely planning and rules oriented. This planning and rules marked a clear lining that did

allow the HR managers to be flexible in whatever they do. However, the modern HR is totally

different and relies heavily on simple operation with an encouragement of feedback from all

the levels, this modern HR shift that the author has highlighted is not only making the

operations simple and easy-to-use but also, empowering the employees, increasing their

autonomy that plays an important role in increasing motivation, up gradation of employee

performance and involvement in decision making. Have even realized the importance of such

tools. The addition of a survey reference and highlighting its percentage makes the above given

statement even more concrete and engaging to the readers. I am of the view that this

paragraph essentially highlights that adopting agile methodologies has resulted in a profitable

consequence that the operations are becoming less complicated and at the same time the

organizations are not only delivering high value to its customers but also are becoming

employee-oriented by empowering them.

The author has used factual evidence that strengthens his point and maintains reader`s attention.

This statement in the article highlights that the adoption of agile by different organization was

increasing. I believe that the author is implying that the business owners were getting awareness

about this valuable method and were convinced to implement it in their organizations. This

implementation process was gradual. However, the author has written a thought-provoking

statement that around 90% of the firms has agile practices in use but it was just limited to their IT

departments. With the passage of time and advancement of the business operations, the

organizations have realized that it is not only important to upgrade the IT departments but also

make improvisations in other departments and functions like HR department, marketing section

etc. in order to keep the processes and departments fully aligned and seamlessly integrated.

Furthermore, the author has validated his point by giving us the example of Bank of Montreal in

which they adopted the innovative practices by forming teams on a cross-functional basis so that

for instance, while hiring there can be a complete assessment of the candidate from all the

perspectives. Moreover, since the organization was using a cross-functional approach it lead to

another benefit to the bank which was that there were employees from different department

that helped to generate a number of ideas that ultimately increased creativity, innovation and

strong competitive edge over others. In the bank, the employees worked in complete

collaboration. It means that the author has highlighted that this bank was not only paving its way

to make the organization more customer oriented but at the same time improving the work

relations and engagement of employees. It marks the importance of teamwork and effective

collaboration can lead to higher productivity and innovative ideas creating a strong foundation of

competitive advantage. Here, the author has also mentioned the example of GE who tried to

make their process aligned and their organization customer-centric adopted agile initially but

later on switched to FastWorks ( It is very much about getting to know your customers and

figuring out what they genuinely want or desire). Since GE is a giant, they wanted to become

customer centric as well as keeping their budgets and resources in control. They adopted this

lean approach so that they can maintain their financial ratios under control and generate

revenue. This lean based approach required the organization to produce anything after any

customer has placed order. This ultimately minimized their cost levels leading to a higher

revenue, integrated operations and customer care. Here, I believe that the author is optimistic

about the implementation of any of the tools. He has highlighted that for businesses there is a

vast room for technological tools and they can opt whichever seems the best fit for their

business.

Then, the author has compared the HR activities on periodic basis. In the period after the Second

World War, the manufacturing industry grabbed a dominant position in the market. However,

their base was to plan every operation on annual or five yearly basis that somehow used to limit

flexibility and allowed less adaptability. Until this time, there was a conventional method of HR

prevailing in which they used to recruit dedicated candidates and with every achievement either

used job rotation or rewarded them financially. This draws the attention of the readers that there

were less allocation of non-monetary benefits. Unlike the traditional approach of HR, modern HR

encourages a well-balanced combination of monetary and non-monetary benefits. Moreover, a

bureaucratic environment was existing meaning only the top management officials were involved

in decision-making. I agree with the author`s point that bureaucratic approach is basically a one-

way communication and to grow as an organization the CEOs and managers need to listen to the

operations managers who are directly involved in the processes as the have more knowledge of

what system demand what. There was no practice of immediate feedback or taking suggestions

or ideas from middle-level or low-level managers. The talent management and long-term

planning was there in organizations. I believe that this used to limit the organization from

adopting flexibility. Besides, they were not able to consider economic, social or political changes

taking place in their surroundings thus could not be adaptable to on-going situations.

After that, the author has further elaborated the point. It comments that the organizations are

moving towards development leaving behind all the traditional methods. However, I feel that this

scenario is biased as the practices are changing but in developed countries. Underdeveloped

countries are relying on conventional practices. Also, there are some jobs that do not require to

open to innovation in that scenario this statement fails. Although, these conventional methods do

prevail even after the advancements in processes but a huge shift has been marked. This

statement highlights another advancement as a result of modern HR which was that the

organization were now in favor of external recruitment methods. I believe that they were

welcoming a candidate into their organization with a whole new perspective, approach and

methods of working meanwhile increasing the competition and chance of hiring the best-fitted

crystal-less candidate. Unlike countless distinctive pay scales within a company, a broad banding

pay structure utilizes a limited number of high pay rate ranges. Broadband compensation is

basically the idea of rewarding more people with fewer salary ranges. Compared to typical

grades, broader bands offer greater range distributions, greater midpoint variables, and

decreased duplication. In this way, the organizations were able to reward more employees

whenever they performed any role in an efficient manner. I believe that this compensation also

has some cons that a company does not have an idea of external market rates and this does not

have a mechanism for cost control. I do not completely agree with the author`s point. I believe

that compensations vary in different industries and organizations and it must not be generalized.

But these changes in pay rates and other advancement were steady and until this time there

were some conventional approaches still prevailing. For instance, the compensation for a labor

person and supervision should vary and the percentages should have a gap otherwise the

employees will be demotivated and productivity and engagement on so many levels will be

compromised. But these changes in pay rates and other advancement were steady and until this

time there were some conventional approaches still prevailing. These approaches includes

succession planning and annual appraisals. Many employees used to discourage these

approaches as they were quite obsolete and were of no benefit to the organizations in longer run.

The author has correctly raised this point that annual appraisals result in decreasing the

productivity. I agree with the author that the employees will not be that productive in the entire

period but when the annual appraisal season comes only in that period their productivity rises.

Moreover, I believe, the annual appraisals decrease employee motivation when the employees

achieve any organizational goal and do not receive immediate reward.