Becoming Agile in the Digital Transformation: The Process of a Large-Scale Agile Transformation

Confronted with the imperatives of a digital world, firms are striving to become agile, resulting in a large-scale agile transformation as part of their organizational digital transformation. Although initial research exists, empirical literature on the process, challenges, and actions of a large-scale agile transformation is scarce. Consequently, this paper conceptualizes the agile transformation process through the lens of sociotechnical systems theory and employs a qualitative research approach comprising two in-depth case studies. As a result, a large-scale agile transformation can be interpreted as an episodic change process that comprises a sequence of multiple agile transformation phases. These phases include radical and incremental change and are delimited by barriers which are formed by emerging challenges. Such barriers are encountered by specific actions that serve scaling and coping purposes. Besides pertinent theoretical insights, the paper offers guidance for managers that direct an agile transformation in the wake of their firms’ digital transformation.

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