FLEX is an operating model that describes activities, roles, and artifacts required to get organizational flow.

How to navigate FLEX. This site has been designed so you can self-navigate to your topics of interest. The top level is this page and the Steps of FLEX to the right. Go through and read each of these pages first, visiting links on a page only when you don’t know a term or when you want to go deeper right then and there. Each page also has Resources on the right that go deeper into related topics but are not needed for an overview of FLEX. For a 45 minute overview of FLEX click here.

The goal of a company’s transformation to Agile should not be to follow a predefined, one-size-fits-all approach. It should be to improve the company’s business agility – that is, the ability to realize value quickly, sustainably, predictably and with high quality while always having the ability to pivot efficiently.

FLEX is a Lean-Agile operational model that is focused on 1) improving the identification of value to be realized by the organization, 2) improving how an organization realizes value for themselves and their customers and 3) creating a learning organization which continues its evolution. FLEX is not a set framework. Instead, it is a distillation of the knowledge of many leading experts in the Lean, Agile, and business management space for the past two decades.  It continues to evolve as we continue to learn.

Most companies need to achieve a business flow as shown in the picture below. Achieving this requires solving the dilemma that people want (and need) to be given a concrete, proven method while recognizing no one single framework Lean-Agile at Mid-Scale: FLEX EssentialsLean-Agile at Mid-Scale: FLEX EssentialsAgile Product Management: Essential Conceptscan work for everybody. FLEX takes advantage of patterns of challenges and success enabling experienced transformation agents to create a tailored path for their organization to improve their business agility.

 

This tailoring has two steps. An initial phase to get you started and a continuing phase for ongoing improvement. The path to success is guided by attending to your objectives, specific agreements you make with each other and the practices you follow.  These are built on a foundation of Lean-Agile principles, FLEX’s transformation philosophy and natural laws of product development.  This is illustrated in the figure, “The Components of FLEX.”

FLEX can be used for any size organization. We call it an ‘enterprise’ transformation because FLEX addresses issues from the beginning of the value stream through deployment. The value stream can be thought of as all of the steps that your work goes through from the initial concept until the value is realized.

FLEX can stand on its own or can be laid on top of methods such as SAFe® (either to enhance it or to use it as a guideline). If you are doing SAFe or considering it, see the FLEX and SAFe® page.

FLEX is based on the reality that how to do business development with a software component is reasonably well known now. The challenge is getting people to do what will work. Just saying “follow this” doesn’t work. To improve an organization’s methods, one must attend to:

• Current organizational structure
• Culture of the company
• Capacity of the people to absorb change
• Who is leading the change

FLEX takes what is known and provides a way to make a customized roadmap for a company’s transition. FLEX is not limited to any one approach but incorporates what works from all other methods. FLEX’s power is in how it makes those practices available to the current context in which it is being used.

Using FLEX

One of the key aspects of FLEX that differentiates it from frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS, DAD and Nexus is that it is not a framework but more of a way of thinking and an approach to manifesting improvement.

​FLEX acknowledges that people need something concrete and well-defined in order to start. At the same time, taking an all-in all-the-way approach to a predefined method has the following disadvantages:

• No one-size-fits-all so you are almost certainly committing yourself to an approach that is not tailored for your organization.
• The commitment required does not allow for pivoting after a quick start.
• You typically start by committing to following an approach instead of taking quick advantage of what you learn from a small, initial engagement.

You should undertake an Agile engagement in an Agile manner. That is, do something small, learn, adjust do something more. This eliminates this seeming dilemma by providing people in the organization a straightforward, well-defined improvement step to begin with. Once enough progress has been done, the next step can be defined. While FLEX does require someone with experience to guide you, you can quickly learn how to guide yourself since it is based on principles and laws of software development. Once these are understood, you can determine your own path. See The Differentiators of FLEX for more.

A five-part approach to a roadmap

While avoiding prescribed solutions, FLEX suggests a phased approach to creating a customized roadmap that builds on patterns of success. Here are the phases:

1. see where you are
2. understand the challenges you are having
3. learn a few key principles and practices that will help you overcome these challenges
4. define how to begin using FLEX’s starting template and tailoring it for your organization
5. begin and continuously improve

Progress is guided by two types of metrics. The first is how much value is being manifested. The second is how well you are improving your development methods.