Maria Diaconu, Founder and CEOImplementing and Sustaining Agile Transformation
“Our holistic approach to agile transformation encompasses three levels: business, operational, and technical,” says Maria Diaconu, founder and CEO of Mozaic Works. As each organization has different business goals, unique culture, and team members with diverse experience and skillsets, Mozaic Works leverages an iterative three-step cycle. The assessment step involves understanding the challenges associated with agile transformation, followed by learning, building the common knowledge required for change, and finally adoption, collaborating with the client to deploy the newly acquired knowledge. Mozaic Works’ learning programs are designed to familiarize a client’s team with a new method of completing projects from inception to completion in self-contained units. With a combination of reading materials, video recordings, assignments, and live sessions with an expert to enhance training processes, Mozaic Works’ agile transformation program is similar to an intensive sixmonth course at a university. The company is also planning to use artificial intelligence to aid in training and assess the feedback being generated during classes more effectively. Training is followed by implementation where agile techniques are applied to achieve the desired results.
During this stage, Mozaic Works performs continuous inspection to identify areas of improvement and provide greater insight into the overall performance of teams.
Pragmatic Deployment of the Right Tools
Mozaic Works strives to provide high quality services to its clients. The company’s strength lies in its ability to help clients overcome the challenges that are on the path toward business agility, especially during the initial stages or during strategic pivots. By establishing a vision with clear objectives, Mozaic Works enables clients to quickly achieve their goals and also allows them to gauge the non-tangible benefits of agile transformation such as improved teamwork and communication. At the same time, Mozaic Works helps eliminate the fear and resistance to change, which are common barriers to such initiatives. “We provide the solutions necessary to sustain the changes that have been implemented,” says Maria. She adds, “We don’t necessarily give them the fish, we empower them to get their own.”
Mozaic Works has collaborated with clients from various verticals that are reliant on IT for delivering their products. Illustrating the capabilities of Mozaic Works, Maria mentions a case of a company that relied on waterfall approach for project development and released new features during a period that ranged from 12 to 24 months.
As this was unsustainable in today’s fast-paced market, the client approached Mozaic Works to adopt agile practices into their workflows. By collaborating with Mozaic Works, the client was able to achieve shorter release cycles ranging between two to three months. The project was a success because Mozaic Works was able to assess the client’s unique requirements and develop a customized approach aimed at successful agile transformation. Not only did Mozaic Works helped select the tools necessary to facilitate new workflows, but the company also provided continual advisory and professional development to make the most of the agile transformation. Mozaic Works has grown organically over the years through recommendations from clients that are satisfied with the company’s services.
Defining True Agile Transformation
Maria states that often companies have a misconception about agile transformation as being limited to adopting agile practices and culture. While these are important aspects, if a client is unable to achieve their desired business outcomes, then the investment is unable to reap any positive outcomes. To that end, Mozaic Works focuses on guiding a client to achieve measurable progress toward their business objectives. Consequently, a client can embrace and thrive in a flexible, collaborative, self-organizing, fast-changing environment. Agility also enhances the performance of teams in an organization and supports them in developing a new mindset that more readily embraces agile frameworks and practices. In addition, Mozaic Works also ensures that the leadership embraces changes as bureaucracy can derail an agile transformation, as new leadership may not believe in its merits oragree with the decentralized structure. Therefore, a continuing commitment and urgency is vital to ensure success.
Agile transformation requires significant support, resources, and time. Nonetheless, it also has the potential to revolutionize how a company manages projects, addresses customer needs, and achieves business growth. Similar to how a mosaic produces a complete picture by arranging together smaller pieces, Mozaic Works find the right combination of activities required for successful business agility.
Mozaic Works focuses on guiding a client to achieve faster measurable progress toward their business objectives
Pragmatic Deployment of the Right Tools
Mozaic Works strives to provide high quality services to its clients. The company’s strength lies in its ability to help clients overcome the challenges that are on the path toward business agility, especially during the initial stages or during strategic pivots. By establishing a vision with clear objectives, Mozaic Works enables clients to quickly achieve their goals and also allows them to gauge the non-tangible benefits of agile transformation such as improved teamwork and communication. At the same time, Mozaic Works helps eliminate the fear and resistance to change, which are common barriers to such initiatives. “We provide the solutions necessary to sustain the changes that have been implemented,” says Maria. She adds, “We don’t necessarily give them the fish, we empower them to get their own.”
Mozaic Works has collaborated with clients from various verticals that are reliant on IT for delivering their products. Illustrating the capabilities of Mozaic Works, Maria mentions a case of a company that relied on waterfall approach for project development and released new features during a period that ranged from 12 to 24 months.
As this was unsustainable in today’s fast-paced market, the client approached Mozaic Works to adopt agile practices into their workflows. By collaborating with Mozaic Works, the client was able to achieve shorter release cycles ranging between two to three months. The project was a success because Mozaic Works was able to assess the client’s unique requirements and develop a customized approach aimed at successful agile transformation. Not only did Mozaic Works helped select the tools necessary to facilitate new workflows, but the company also provided continual advisory and professional development to make the most of the agile transformation. Mozaic Works has grown organically over the years through recommendations from clients that are satisfied with the company’s services.
Defining True Agile Transformation
Maria states that often companies have a misconception about agile transformation as being limited to adopting agile practices and culture. While these are important aspects, if a client is unable to achieve their desired business outcomes, then the investment is unable to reap any positive outcomes. To that end, Mozaic Works focuses on guiding a client to achieve measurable progress toward their business objectives. Consequently, a client can embrace and thrive in a flexible, collaborative, self-organizing, fast-changing environment. Agility also enhances the performance of teams in an organization and supports them in developing a new mindset that more readily embraces agile frameworks and practices. In addition, Mozaic Works also ensures that the leadership embraces changes as bureaucracy can derail an agile transformation, as new leadership may not believe in its merits oragree with the decentralized structure. Therefore, a continuing commitment and urgency is vital to ensure success.
Agile transformation requires significant support, resources, and time. Nonetheless, it also has the potential to revolutionize how a company manages projects, addresses customer needs, and achieves business growth. Similar to how a mosaic produces a complete picture by arranging together smaller pieces, Mozaic Works find the right combination of activities required for successful business agility.
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