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While agile methods are old news amongst teams and within the field of software development, the interest of entire organisations to become agile is growing. In the process of adopting agile methods, there are several commonly known success factors and challenges for organisations to take into consideration which would ease the transformation.   Previous studies on success factors and challenges during the agile transformation have been focused on the experience of the organisation or the human resource aspect of agile. The majority of existing theory on the topic has outlined the agile transformation based on single organisational case studies, or in quantifying manors. It is however known that agile coaches carry some significance for successful transformations but the research area is lagging in the understanding of their particular role for organisational agile.  This study focuses on the experience of the agile coach of success factors and challenges and their role in assisting the organisations during the agile transformation. Through a qualitative interpretivist approach, this thesis sat out to understand the agile coaches perception of success factors and challenges and consequently their role in agile transformations. By semi-structured interviews, data was collected and later analysed thematically to find meanings and patterns among the agile coaches of their perception and contribution to successful transformations.   By studying the agile transformation from the perspective of agile coaches, this thesis (1) contributes to broadening the research area with more knowledge about the agile coach as a profession, (2) nuancing the picture of success factors and challenges linked to agile transformations through the new perspective of agile coaches, and to (3) provide new insight to this yet, underexplored area of agile coaches within the research field of organisational agile.

There are many difficulties in agile transformations, and a majority of the transformation efforts fail. However, companies continue to pursue the agile path, pushed by forces, both in their environments and internally. The purpose of this study is to explore what facilitators and inhibitors are present in an agile transformation. This is to try and understand agile transformations better, and a lens of change management and culture will be utilized to focus on some essential aspects. To succeed in this, two research questions are to be answered: How does culture facilitate or inhibit change in agile transformations in a software organization in the automotive industry? And, how does change management facilitate or inhibit change in agile transformations in a software organization in the automotive industry? This thesis is a case study on a software organization in the automotive industry, and provides a retrospect on the transformation. The firm originates from the automotive industry, resulting in the industry-related culture to continue affecting the firm today, both internally and externally. To understand the organizational context, the history of the organization, and the culture, the case study try to go in depth by exploring solely a single case. The thesis results are that multiple facilitators and inhibitors are identified for each of the aspects. However, most facilitators and inhibitors relates to both change management and culture, touching upon the interplay between these aspects. Further, the transformation effort is identified to be dependent on both the organizational culture and the organizational context, implicating that transformations efforts are rather unique.

Agile methodologies have gained popularity for their ability to help companies respond quickly to changing environments and customer needs. However, organizations often struggle with adopting agile methodologies due to their focus on implementing specific frameworks rather than fostering an agile mindset in their organizational culture. Therefore, it is important to promote an agile mindset within organizations and gradually embed it into their culture. This thesis aims to explore how organizational leaders can support the agile mindset adoption. After a thorough review of the relevant literature, the study collected empirical data via interviews with leaders, agile experts and professionals with extensive experience in agile environments to identify practical approaches to support the adoption of an agile mindset that may require an organizational culture transformation. Overall, the outcome of this study contributed to increasing the chances to realize the benefits of agile transformations by fostering the agile mindset.

There has been an increasing awareness of how organisations that have adopted new ways of working have been able to improve their productivity. The introduction of Agile in the beginning of 2000s allowed both small and large organisations to implement new methods for transforming all levels of the organisations, involving aspects such as leadership, tools, and processes. Moving towards agile practices in many ways pushed companies towards a revolution in the sense of promoting new processes and methods, which by now have become spread all over the world.The introduction of Agile has nevertheless been far from unproblematic. The organisational culture has proven to be one of the most enduring challenges, as the degree of employee understanding and involvement has a decisive impact on successful implementation during periods of significant change. Hence, in Agile Transformation, or an organisation’s journey towards continuous improvement through rapid delivery, feedback and learning in a changing business environment, leaders need constantly spread the agile philosophy in a simple and transparent matter both internally to employees and also to external stakeholders.Our study is exploratory by nature and aims to further the understanding of Agile Transformation and how Entrepreneurial Culture can have a positive impact on this transformation. To explore these issues, we employ a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews with a team of employees in one case company. The interviews were held with upper-level managers in decision-making positions and with ownership of the change process. By exploring the employees’ opinions about adapting to Agile Transformation, and how the organisational culture has influenced and been managed in the transformation process, we present results which can be used for continued research on Agile Transformation, and particularly emphasize the importance of having an appropriate organisational culture to be able to succeed.

Today many organisations are transforming from a traditional structure to an agile structure to be able to work more efficiently, meet the fast changes that are continuously happening and make sure not be outperformed by competitors. Agile was from the beginning a set of values and principles designed for software development but it has scaled and today it includes the whole organisation. To avoid imbalance within the organization ,it is crucial that the whole organisation applies an agile mindset. However, the transformation may imply a lot of obstacles and challenges on the way. For some departments within an organisation, it is a lot easier to keep up with the changes and be a part of the transformation process while other departments lag behind or are forgotten, which is common for the HR department. HR ́s traditional responsibilities are performance appraisal, learning and development, compensation and recruiting and they are commonly viewed as an administrative function rather than a strategic function. However, it is important for HR to be a part of the agile transformation to be able to support the business. Applying agile can be a challenging task for HR since the requirements are many and the goal is clear which makes it hard to have an agile approach. On the other hand, HR can apply “agile lite” to their responsibilities and in that way fit the new organisation structure. In an agile transformation process it is highlighted that HR could function as a change agent, since they have a direct impact on the effectiveness of an organisation’s change and development. However, HR usually takes on a reactive role and are not the ones leading the transformation. This thesis examines two aspects for HR in an agile transformation process. First of all, the roles of HR in an agile transformation is investigated followed by identification of the challenges arising for HR during a transformation. How these challenges impact each other and the role of HR is also covered in the thesis. The study is based on qualitative research methods combined with a literature review. For the data collection, a total of seven semi-structured interviews with people from selected organisations were made. Further, a focus group session was conducted to discuss the findings and get a deeper understanding of the topic. To be able to analyze the aspects, theories concerning traditional HR, agile, agile applied to HR and the change process are covered in the thesis. Further, the chapter Cases of HR in agile transformations is categorized under HR’s role in an agile transformation and challenges with HR in an agile transformation. Regarding HR ́s role in an agile transformation there are different opinions. Concluded from this research, HR could act as a change agent. Further, what affects what role HR ends up with is mainly based on their reputation and if they understand and work close to the organisation, which is two identified challenges. Other main challenges identified for HR in an agile transformation are: Understand and work agile, HR’s traditional responsibilities, Experiment, Competence, Attitude and awareness of change, Understand the “why” and communicate continuously, Time and capacity, Behavioral knowledge and External factors.

Studien syftar till att genom en kvalitativ forskningsmetod undersöka vilka faktorer som gynnar en organisation för agil transformation. Det undersöks även vilka utmaningar en organisation kan stöta på vid genomförandet av en agil transformation. Syftet uppfylls genom att besvara forskningsfrågan: Vilka faktorer gynnar en organisations agila transformation och vilka utmaningar kan uppstå? Via semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem respondenter som varit aktiva vid genomförandet av en agil transformation har djup kunskap om agil transformation inhämtas, tolkats och analyserats. Resultatet av studien visar att det finns flera framgångsfaktorer och utmaningar att beakta med agil transformation. Att förbereda alla medarbetare är en av framgångsfaktorerna som identifierades i studien. Resultatet av studien kan vara användbar för organisationer som ämnar genomgå en agil transformation.

The increase for project efficiency has led to some businesses adopting the agile project management model. This research project has studied how a project-oriented manufacturing company has introduced the agile model in its Research & Development organization. The report here is based on qualitative analysis of 9 interviews with respondents and intends to evaluate how far the agile transformation in the Research & Development organization has progressed. The report further aims to describe how the respondents have perceived and have been affected by the agile transformation.  The respondents in this study have been working as developers and have experienced the agile transformation in the organization from day one. The respondents´ experiences have been analyzed using Self-Determination Theory and the mediating role of psychological safety. Furthermore, previous studies on project transition and agile transformation have been used in the analysis.  This research study has also sought to learn how the temporary organization has introduced internal improvements in its organization through the introduction of the agile model.

The automotive industry has seen revolutionary changes in the past two decades. Vehicles are starting to incorporate within themselves a significant amount of electronic and software based components, due to which the industry has seen rapidly changing customer requirements. The traditional work processes that automotive companies have ever so often employed, with excessive documentation, inefficient work teams and redundant reporting have proven to be insufficient in the newer fast-paced environment. Agile project management methods, as the name suggests, could be a tool that these companies can utilise in order to tackle such concerns. Agile methods, until a few years ago, had constrained themselves to dynamic software development applications, but they are now slowly starting to penetrate the automotive sector. This study, hence, tries to identify the factors that contribute to an automotive organisation’s decision to transform itself into an Agile based organisation, the challenges they encounter during the change process and the subsequent impact they see post transformation.   This thesis takes the form of a case study that has been conducted within the Swedish commercial vehicle company Volvo Trucks, a subsidiary of AB Volvo. Empirics were gathered in the form of interviews and surveys to get a deeper understanding of the internal processes and the transformational journey that helped Volvo Trucks become an agile based organisation. The collected empirical data is then further interpreted through the lens of theories pertaining to change and change management. Our findings suggest that the need for a transformation from traditional methods of management to agile can be driven by forces that are both internal and external, where the forces can present themselves at the same time. The internal factors here being, the inherent dysfunctions of the traditional methods. Significant challenges faced during transformation are of an organisational nature, where a partially agile organisation struggles to coordinate between its agile and non-agile departments. Lastly, a boost in worker morale and operational advantages such as increased planning efficiency and project transparency have been seen as major benefits post transformation.

There are issues around complex products in multiple large companies such as Volvo Cars, Ericsson and ABB. This report focuses on Volvo Cars in an agile context with issues concerning dependencies and coordination. The subject which is investigated closer to solve this problem is system anatomies. System anatomies is a project management tool consisting of capabilities (boxes), formulated from a user perspective with dependencies (arrows) connecting them. This report is an abductive ethnographic study around the adoption of system anatomies in a department at Volvo Cars which is in the front of the agile transformation and develop digital tools other departments in the organisation uses in their development. The adoption of the system anatomy was firstly made through thoroughly done identification of preconditions favouring or disfavouring the system anatomy. Secondly an observation of a creation of a system anatomy was carried out which led to an actual system anatomy. In conclusion four interviews were held to examine the possibility continuously make the system anatomy bring value.  The purpose of the study is to investigate how different adoption of system anatomies can be modelled to be useful in a large organisation which is pursuing a transformation in going agile. The study results in that the creation of a system anatomy does not only give value in the form of the actual illustration of the system anatomy but also through the discussions which are held during the creation process. An important insight was that the created system anatomy is a static snapshot of the reality of the moment it is created and therefore must be maintained and updated to continue to contribute with maximum value. The interviews around the system anatomy have treated a number of context-objects, such as use case and architecture, which are other tools that are used in the coordination. Each context-object has been combined to the system anatomy to united views which shows the creating relation between these in order to identify misconceptions and contradictive dependencies is possible. With future research in the area, it is interesting with studies of system anatomies in similar environments since this study only is a study of explorative character. Other ways of future research include deeper investigation of the different sub-steps in the creation process of the system anatomy as well as a study of more context-objects. / På flera stora företag så som Volvo Cars, Ericsson och ABB upplevs problematik kring komplexa problem. Denna rapport behandlar Volvo Cars utifrån en agil kontext med problematik kring beroenden och koordination där ämnet som undersöks närmare för att lösa problematiken är systemanatomier. Systemanatomier är en typ av projektledningsverktyg som är en graf bestående av förmågor (noder), formulerade ur ett användarperspektiv med beroenden (bågar) sinsemellan. Följande rapport är en abduktiv etnografisk studie kring införandet av systemanatomier på en avdelning på Volvo Cars som har kommit långt i den agila transformationen och utvecklar verktyg som andra delar av organisation sedan ska använda i utvecklingen av nya produkter. Införandet följs först genom att ingående beskriva de förutsättningar som finns för en systemanatomi på Volvo Cars. Följande observeras ett framtagande av en faktisk systemanatomi och avslutningsvis hur denna systemanatomi kan fortsätta tillföra värde genom att skapa relationer mellan anatomin och kontextuella objekt. Syftet är att undersöka hur olika tillämpningar av systemanatomier kan utformas för att bli användbara i en stor organisation som genomför en transformation mot att bli agila. Studien resulterar främst i att framtagning av en systemanatomi inte bara ger värde i form av den faktiskt framtagna systemanatomin utan även av de diskussioner som förs vid framtagandet. Insikten att den framtagna systemanatomin är en statisk ögonblicksbild och därför måste underhållas och uppdateras för att kunna bidra med maximalt värde framåt har varit betydande. Intervjuer kring systemanatomin behandlade ett antal kontext-objekt, exempelvis use case och arkitektur, som är andra verktyg som används för koordination. Ur studien framkommer att anatomin kan kombineras med kontext-objekt för att skapa gemensamma vyer och det visade sig möjligt att identifiera relationer mellan dessa. Dessa relationer kan hjälpa att koordinera utvecklingen på Volvo Cars främst genom att tidigare i utvecklingsprocessen identifiera motsägande beroenden och missförstånd i lärandefasen av utvecklingen av nya produkter. Vid ett fortsatt arbete på området är det inte minst intressant med undersökningar av systemanatomier i liknande miljöer då denna undersökning enbart är av en explorativ karaktär. Andra spår för framtida arbete inkluderar att gå djupare in i delstegen för framtagning av systemanatomin liksom att undersöka fler kontext-objekt.