Scaling agile throughout an entire organization presents several challenges but also provides advantages. The main challenges are shifting work management to be more fluid, achieving a cultural shift toward agile mindsets, and transitioning technology stacks to improve transparency and information flow. However, scaling agile can increase employee engagement, improve organizational visibility, better align goals across teams, enhance capacity management, and provide specific goals for teams. Implementing scaled agile helps an entire organization work together toward shared goals.

1. Advantages and Challenges of Scaling Agile
“Many companies get trapped by the paradox of hitting numbers ‘now’ versus
improving sales for future quarters or years ahead.”-Tiffani Bova
With aim of faster-delivering value to the customer, agile has gained roots in various
software development organizations. But the actual and meaningful change gain starts from
the scaling of agile throughout the organization. With agile the time to market is reduced up
to 40%. Scaling agile is about differentiating business along with creating more efficient
teams.
In our previous article, we have seen what scaled agile is and what are their different
frameworks. In this article, we will go through the challenges scaled agile faces while
transforming and what benefits it provides to the organizations.
Implementing and inspiring a small team or group of teams is an easy task compared to
changing a complete organization's thinking and work execution. Thus, making scaling agile
a challenging task.
Challenges of Scaling Agile
The challenges of scaling agile can be categorized mainly in three main divisions which are
as follows.
Work Management Shift
After achieving the cultural shift of agile it requires to align with the actual work where a
work management shift is needed. Implementing the principle of best possible work and
enabling the value flow work management shifting is necessary but bringing it, in reality, is a
challenging task. The fixed time and resources with teams that are more fluid, constant
learning, and change accepting to adjust the scope accordingly helps achieve it. A scaled
agile organization can shift their work management with open leadership approach
management style, adjusting budget practices by determining value stream, modifying team
structure to active collaboration and rapid experimentation, and changing communication to
horizontal rather than top down.
Cultural Shift
Agile is always considered as a mindset and culture built in an organization rather than a set
of practices or principles. It is always easy to apply some rules and regulations rather than
changing the mindset which is a challenge for agile transformation. While scaling agile
change of mindset and shifting company culture is the most challenging point for an
organization as failure in it will cause failure in the transformation to agile. Scaled agile
demands to think, act, and respond in a very different way and also work planning, managing,
and employee engagement at a different level. This shift requires commitment from the top to
bottom along with time and intention.
Technology Shift

2. Scaling agile in the enterprise means creating increased visibility, transparency, and flow of
information that is for evaluating and argument potential solutions. This requires an
enterprise to clear its technology stack and replace it with better technology solutions. For
example, if planning, development, and designing are in one tool but delivery is in another
tool it will disconnect the delivery from the rest of the others and strategic goals. In scaled
agile, it ensures the technology solutions where every process is connected providing
improved transparency, mapping, strategic plans, collaboration, and information flow in both
directions.
Advantages of Scaling Agile
To know what difference it makes by applying scaled agile to an organization let’s see the
advantages it provides.
Employee Engagement
Employees are empowered to decisions making for their work and also informed on how
their work impacts the higher-level business goals. This builds trust and a sense of
responsibility towards their work engaging them more in their work.
Improves Organizational Visibility
Connecting and visualizing work from every team brings a higher level of visibility. This
provides managers and executives a bigger picture of every action that helps in removing
bottlenecks and proper work allocation decisions.
Align Everyone with a Goal
Scaled agile helps connect and align top-level management to the employees working on the
goals. This alignment helps in boosting cross-team alignment, and transparency increases
faster reply time and improves agility.
Increase Capacity Management
By proper balancing of workload and availability, scaled agile maintains the focus of creating
value continuously along with flexibility, change, and empowering leadership.
Provide Specific Goals
Providing specific concepts, and practices scaled agile enables the organization to move
towards a common goal. This allows teams to concentrate on a common mission creating a
high-quality and customer-centric product.
“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”- James
Cash Penney
Implementing scaled agile in an organization ensures that the complete organization is
moving towards the same goal with new and updated technology, work concepts, and
especially a mindset that helps in growth.