Are you familiar with business agile?
Don’t worry if you don’t have a smartphone, it’s not impossible to get one. Although it only began to take hold in 2017, the concept is growing faster than contempt for new credit card readers that only occasionally work.
Here’s the bottom line: Agile (essentially continuous delivery of improvement) is so widespread that it’s being adopted by all levels of the business world. This is despite the increasing presence of AI and the emphasis on emotional intelligence.
This isn’t just a simple spread of Lean and Scrum methods – it’s a mindset shift that affects all business leaders, large and small.
Gartner’s first use of “business agile” in their portfolio and project management Hype Cycle was July 2016. (Gartner research is only available to clients). Business Agile was an emerging trend by 2017, meaning that it will be adopted and developed quickly in the business world.
The Gartner Hype Cycle can be extremely useful for enterprises, but what about small businesses that are leading the business agile trend?
Project managers, I’m thrilled to present the small business Hype cycle. This version of the Hype Cycle gives project managers of any size an insight into the future of their industry and a checklist of tasks to implement these insights.
What is the Hype Cycle?
The Hype Cycle is Gartner’s flagship product. It looks something like this.
Gartner tracks trends and new technology over time and maps them to each point on the cycle.
The innovation trigger is when a potentially amazing new technology emerges and people, if they are aware of it, are excited about its potential. Although the technology or trend isn’t always practical (or commercially available), it often gets lots of attention–but not necessarily adoption. Its viability is still not proven.
Some companies may have experimented with new ways of thinking, hardware, and software following the innovation trigger. The product is becoming more popular, or companies losing interest due to bad press. Some companies may adopt at the peak of high expectations, but many are still too nervous about the failure stories to jump in.
They’ll feel validated by the immediate fallout. As industry leaders emerge, the interest in new products decreases. New technology and trends fall into a depression during this time of disillusionment.
They are waiting for the slope of enlightenment when the benefits of these innovations will be much clearer to the paying markets. The product is constantly evolving and new iterations are available. They are far better than the original version that was made at the innovation trigger.
Although conservative companies may be hesitant to go ahead with the product or idea during the slope of knowledge, they might be convinced to give it a shot during the plateau of productivity. Why? Mainstream adoption is finally starting to take root. Gartner states that a product is at the plateau of productivity when it “demonstrates broad market applicability” and “is clearly relevant.”
Why should project managers care about this?
Although the Hype Cycle is fascinating for tech nerds, it can initially appear to be “Hmm…that’s cool” rather than “Wow! That’s helpful!” When you work in a niche like project management, it’s easy think that some of the Hype Cycle’s ideas don’t apply to you.
But there is more than one Hype Cycle. There are many.
One specific topic is project management.
The latest project management Hype Cycle, for example, shows that the PMP is the most popular.