According to Denning (2019), in organizations that are accustomed to more hierar-chical management approaches, Agile transformation will include radical changes inthe power structure, attitudes, values, and ways of interacting with stakeholders suchas customers, employees, shareholders, and partners

In their classic model for understanding the behavior of organizations as complexsystems, Nadler and Tushman (1980) relied upon the model proposed by Leavitt(1965) to propose four essential elements of the organization that must be constantlyrealigned, as transformations occur. These elements are structure, people, processes,and organizational culture

Since Lewin’s (1947) seminal three-phase model was proposed, several models for imple-menting POCs have been developed, by both academics and specialized consultancies.Rosenbaum et al. (2018) analyzed 14 widely recognized POC models and classified theminto three large groups: governance, structural, and practice-based models. The articlefurther identifies those who are project-oriented, resistance-oriented, and interpretive in nature.

The term “organizational change” is quite broad and can encompass to any type ofchange, including technical and managerial innovations, declining performance ofan organization or evolution of a system over time (Cummings & Worley, 2009).

Agile methods were initially defined to be used in a single small project team(Boehm & Turner, 2005), and their implementation at larger scales can be complex(Dybå & Dingsøyr, 2008). To address this challenge, several frameworks haveemerged, developed by specialists or consulting firms, proposing new organizationalstructures and governance processes. The most popular model is the Scaled AgileFramework (SAFe®) and next are Scrum@Scale, Enterprise Scrum, the Spotifymodel, and Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) (Digital.ai, 2021).

What are the organizational changesimplemented by companies that adopt agile approaches?

Dikert et al. (2016), in theirseminal study on challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations, drawattention to the need for more studies that address the agile transformation process with abroader perspective, going beyond software development practices.

agile methods quickly began to be used by larger projects, laterexpanded to entire department processes and, in some cases, to the entire organization(Conforto et al., 2014; Denning, 2015; Dikert et al., 2016)

Kane, G. C., Phillips, A. N., Copulsky, J. R., & Andrus, G. R. (2019). The technology fallacy—How people are the real key to digital transformation. The MIT Press.

Boehm, B., & Turner, R. (2005). Management challenges to implementing agile processes in tra-ditional development organizations. IEEE Software, 22(5), 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2005.129

Denning, S. (2015). How to make the whole organization Agile. Strategy and Leadership, 43(6),10–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-09-2015-0074

(Boehm & Turner, 2005; Denning, 2015; Kane et al., 2019)

Although agile approaches to project management were originally developed for use bysmall software development teams, agile methods quickly began to be used by entiredepartment processes and, in some cases, to the entire organization.

the real-ization of case studies that contemplate the complete transformation process under-taken by the organization that implemented agile approache

The codes defined during the content analysis process, conducted with the support of the ATLAS.ti tool, were grouped into four major themes: Team, Processes, Structure, and Organizational Culture.

A total of 164 organizations were analyzed in these studies, 145 of which were not named. Among the companies mentioned, Ericsson was the subject of six analyzed papers. In addition, the LEGO Group, the BBC in the United Kingdom, and the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund were the objects of study in two papers each.

Most of these studies (55 papers, 76.4%) adopted the case study approach. The other studies were based on interviews (12 papers, 16.7%) or surveys (5 papers, 6.9%). In 13 of the analyzed case studies, at least one of the authors had a professional relationship with the organization, and in four cases, the action research approach was used.

These elements are structure, people, processes, and organizational culture.According to Denning (2019), in organizations that are accustomed to more hierarchical management approaches, Agile transformation will include radical changes in the power structure, attitudes, values, and ways of interacting with stakeholders such as customers, employees, shareholders, and partners. Kane et al. (2019) reinforce that this transformation process makes the realignment of the four dimensions proposed by Nadler and Tushman (1980) even more challenging, considering the complexity of the changes involved.

In their classic model for understanding the behavior of organizations as complex systems, Nadler and Tushman (1980) relied upon the model proposed by Leavitt (1965) to propose four essential elements of the organization that must be constantly realigned, as transformations occur.

The sociotechnical systems theory, originally developed at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London during the 1950s and 1960s, advocates for the consideration of technical and social factors when seeking to promote change within an organization.

The term “organizational change” is quite broad and can encompass to any type of change, including technical and managerial innovations, declining performance of an organization or evolution of a system over time (Cummings & Worley, 2009).

Dikert et al. (2016), in their seminal study on challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations, draw attention to the need for more studies that address the agile transformation process with a broader perspective, going beyond software development practices.

Although agile approaches to project management were originally developed for use by small software development teams, agile methods quickly began to be used by entire department processes and, in some cases, to the entire organization.