4 tips for CIOs managing agile teams

Though there is no definitive guide to projects that are a home run for agile teams, there are some that tend to lend themselves to them. Broadly speaking, the projects should have a main deliverable that teams can develop incrementally — and each phase can stand on its own.

For example, a project with a high degree of success is improving customer care in the contact center. These types of projects include the addition of new technologies, such as voice of the customer survey tools, self-service knowledge bases and virtual assistants. These projects have a main deliverable: higher customer satisfaction numbers. But they can also stand in incremental phases, with the addition of each new technology improving customer care.

Other projects may include using self-service applications for benefits enrollment, marketing strategy development with the use of marketing automation tools or establishing an automated process for onboarding employees.

The bottom line is that CIOs and other business leaders must select the right type of projects, manage the teams loosely enough where they can be flexible and responsive, yet disciplined enough to meet short-term goals, while keeping business leaders and stakeholders informed.